So it seems under the advice of Dr. Atlas, Trump may be trying a stealth Sweden approach. Let the virus spread in schools and among the young and healthy and see if the USofA can get to herd immunity without too many dying.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/new-trump-pandemic-adviser-pushes-controversial-herd-immunity-strategy-worrying-public-health-officials/ar-BB18xMz7Less testing among the young and asymptomatics seems another step down the herd immunity path.
“President Trump is fully focused on defeating the virus through therapeutics and ultimately a vaccine. There is no discussion about changing our strategy,” White House communications director Alyssa Farah said in a statement. “We have initiated an unprecedented effort under Operation Warp Speed to safely bring a vaccine to market in record time — ending this virus through medicine is our top focus.”
The way to defeat the virus is through limiting and preventing transmission.
The idea that some magic existing drug will prove aces or a highly effective virus is just around the corner is awfully faulty thinking. Extremely irresponsible. How hard is it to wear a face mask in public when near other people?
Atlas has also said he is unsure “scientifically” whether masks make sense, despite broad consensus among scientists that they are effective.
With a population of 328 million in the United States, it may require 2.13 million deaths to reach a 65 percent threshold of herd immunity, assuming the virus has a 1 percent fatality rate, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.
No one wants to come out and say we're willing to have perhaps 2M deaths so that we can reopen the economy.
And there's really no consensus on what % is required to achieve herd immunity. There's very little research on how long anti-bodies and any such immunity lasts, whether people can get the virus more than once (a few reportedly have), etc.
Lotta guesswork and uncertainty, including whether CV-19 will return seasonally in force as flu does.
A scary thought is that this August peak that the US is going through could actually be a warm weather lull in the strength of the virus -- with apparently a smaller % dying and symptoms not as serious in general -- and the Virus could ramp up when the weather turns colder. That is, the half measures in most of the US might have led to a much worse outbreak except that Summer slowed down the Virus, and Winter could be devastating. Sure hope not.
