Fla. needs herd immunity from Trump-influenced DeSantis
The director of the National Institutes of Health calls it “dangerous” and “scientifically and ethically problematic.”
A former Harvard Medical School professor and pioneering HIV/AIDS researcher calls it “mass murder.”
Yet Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis embraces it.
We’re talking about the idea of letting the coronavirus spread rapidly among supposedly less vulnerable people while isolating the most vulnerable. In theory, once enough people have been infected, even those who haven’t contracted the disease will be protected.
It’s called herd immunity. In recent weeks, the governor has hosted discussions with contrarian scientists and doctors who oppose lockdowns, mask-wearing and social distancing. Those contrarians joined others this month to support the Great Barrington Declaration. It advocates a “focused protection” response to the virus.
President Trump is a fan. During a town hall in Pennsylvania, Trump said, “You’ll develop herd — like a herd mentality. It’s going to be — it’s going to be herd developed — and that’s going to happen.”
Because credible public health experts reject “focused protection,” states have shown little interest. As the Washington Post reported, however, Florida is the exception.
How predictable. Whatever Trump believes about the virus, no matter how dubious the source, DeSantis will get on board.
“Focused prevention” aligns with Trump’s wish to open as much of the economy as possible. Last month, DeSantis moved Florida into Phase 3 reopening without giving counties any notice.
DeSantis has long made a Trump victory in Florida more of a priority than Florida’s public health. After Dr. Scott Atlas – a neuroradiologist, not an epidemiologist – joined the White House Coronavirus Task Force, DeSantis hosted him in Florida.
Atlas supports herd immunity. According to news reports, the former Fox News commentator has taken over the task force. He has quashed efforts to expand virus testing. Against all evidence, he believes that widespread use of masks does not restrict transmission of the virus.
More ominously, Atlas reinforces Trump’s mistaken opinion that the country is “rounding the turn” on the virus, as Trump told a rally in Fort Myers over the weekend. Trump has used that phrase for seven weeks, as case numbers in some states are at record levels.
DeSantis has his fans. An op-ed from one of the libertarian think tanks that favor herd immunity praised the governor’s stepped-up reopening: “Under the influence of some courageous and brilliant intellectuals with a conscience, Florida has joined South Dakota and Indiana in the land of the living.”
Consider that South Dakota comparison. Gov. Kristi Roem, a Republican, welcomed about 500,000 bikers to an annual August rally in the town of Sturgis. New reporting suggests that the rally contributed to a spike in cases throughout the Upper Midwest.
DeSantis would understand. By refusing to close the state’s beaches in March, the governor turned Spring Break into a superspreader event. Many universities rewrote this year’s calendars to eliminate Spring Break.
With vaccines still in development, herd immunity can tempt people who want children back in school and places of worship open. But as 80 scientists stated in response to the Great Barrington Declaration, it’s “a dangerous fallacy unsupported by scientific evidence” that critics say could cause one million or more preventable deaths in the U.S.
Even COVID-19 survivors may suffer lifelong damage. “Focused prevention” also wrongly assumes that we could isolate all of the vulnerable elderly. Researchers also don’t know how long immunity lasts.
Perhaps DeSantis, father of three small children, will volunteer for a herd immunity experiment. If not, he should stop embracing the herd mentality from the White House.