“We certainly are not wanting to wait back and just let people get infected,” he said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci argued Wednesday that the United States should not pursue herd immunity in its fight against the coronavirus — even as a top White House adviser has reportedly advocated the strategy and President Donald Trump himself invoked it this week.
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The remarks from Fauci, who had been sidelined from most public appearances for two weeks following vocal cord surgery, come amid Trump’s elevation of a new health adviser, Dr. Scott Atlas.
A physician with no expertise in infectious diseases or epidemiology, Atlas is known for his rosier assessments of the pandemic’s threat and resistance to coronavirus-related restrictions.
The Washington Post reported Monday that Atlas had begun urging the White House to embrace herd immunity to quash the ongoing public health crisis.
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Fauci and other public health experts oppose that approach, which would result in numerous deaths. They instead favor achieving herd immunity by inoculating a significant percentage of the population when a vaccine becomes available.
Although Atlas has denied encouraging herd immunity and rejected reporting to that effect as an “overt lie,” the president seemingly referred to the strategy in an interview Monday.
“Once you get to a certain number, you know — we use the word herd, right?” Trump told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham. “Once you get to a certain number, it’s going to go away.”
Pressed Wednesday on the recent rhetoric about herd immunity and whether White House officials were actively discussing the strategy, Fauci said he was “not so sure what that’s all about.”
“We certainly are not wanting to wait back and just let people get infected so that you can develop herd immunity. That’s certainly not my approach,” he said.
“It’s certainly not [White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. [Deborah] Birx’s approach or any of the other people that I know of on that task force.”
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The Washington Post reported that Atlas had begun urging the White House to embrace herd immunity, which would entail allowing most Americans to become infected with #Covid-19 in order to build widespread resistance.
Atlas has denied those reports https://t.co/K05Il3EIQQ
— POLITICO (@politico) September 2, 2020
This is the sort of [expletive] that will get more people killed. Dr. Fauci, a world renowned and respected expert in infectious diseases, says herd immunity is a bad idea, while Dr. Atlas, a radiologist with no expertise in infectious diseases. promotes herd immunity at the behest of his master, Trump. The constant contradictions and misinformation coming from this president only serve to confuse people, create anxiety and could lead to more deaths from COVID 19.
We cannot continue with Trump, his supporters and lapdogs in charge. I used to think I could handle another 4 years of this phony baloney president. But now I’m concerned that if Trump is re-elected, more of us are going to die. Trump is no longer just annoying; now he is dangerous.
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