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Andy Meek
Guest
- Newly disclosed emails show that a Trump official was prodding other members of the administration to support natural herd immunity as a response to the coronavirus pandemic earlier this summer.
- This strategy can be achieved by widespread vaccinations -- but also by exposing as many people as possible to the coronavirus so that a natural immune response is developed.
- Regarding the latter, this is considered an extremely controversial coronavirus strategy, because it would entail millions of people getting sick and many dying unnecessarily.
A week after the FDA swiftly granted an emergency use authorization to Pfizer so that its coronavirus vaccine candidate could start being distributed around the country and injected into patients, the agency is again poised to do the same for another drugmaker. On Friday, a similar authorization is expected for the coronavirus vaccine candidate from Moderna, which will add millions more doses of vaccines to those that have already begun to be distributed and administered in most of the country. Slowly but surely, these vaccines will remove people from the potential chain of coronavirus transmission, such that White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci told NPR's Morning Edition earlier this week that the US might start to see the early stages of herd immunity against the coronavirus by the late spring or early summer. "I would say 50% would have to get vaccinated before you start to see an impact," Fauci said. "But I would say 75% to 85% would have to get vaccinated if you want to have that blanket of herd immunity."
Speaking of that so-called "herd immunity" strategy, where a critical mass of people is finally protected against the coronavirus and can essentially stop the pandemic in its tracks, vaccines aren't the only way to achieve that goal. That can also be achieved the hard -- and horrifying -- way. By tens of millions of people just getting sick, some of whom will get over the virus and some won't.
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These leaked COVID-19 emails from the Trump administration are truly horrifying originally appeared on BGR.com on Thu, 17 Dec 2020 at 15:35:41 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Via BRG - Boy Genius Report