Lifestyle News Opinons Politics

Coronavirus Could Be ‘Exterminated’ If Lockdowns Were Lifted

‘Going outdoors is what stops every respiratory disease’

A veteran scholar of epidemiology has warned that the ongoing lockdowns throughout the United States and the rest of the world are almost certainly just prolonging the coronavirus outbreak rather than doing anything to truly mitigate it.

Knut Wittkowski, previously the longtime head of the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design at the Rockefeller University in New York City, said in an interview with the Press and the Public Project that the coronavirus could be “exterminated” if we permitted most people to lead normal lives and sheltered the most vulnerable parts of society until the danger had passed.


“[W]hat people are trying to do is flatten the curve. I don’t really know why. But, what happens is if you flatten the curve, you also prolong, to widen it, and it takes more time. And I don’t see a good reason for a respiratory disease to stay in the population longer than necessary,” he said.


Excavation set to begin on Trump administration’s 250-foot triumphal arch amid legal battle
GOP candidate gets busted trying to plant drugs on his political rival
With Gloria Steinem’s Death, Establishment Media Silences the Conservative Half of America
Court Forbids Mom to Take Daughter, 13, to Normal Christian Church – Used the Word ‘Cult’ in Official Docs
Pirro joins UK in mass crackdown on Chinese-linked scam centers
Trump Admin Announces Intent to Remove Tax-Exempt Status from Woke Private Colleges
Watch: JD Vance Pays Tribute to Karoline Leavitt in First White House Press Briefing Since Her Departure
Dramatic video shows SWAT vehicle ramming tractor during tense Oregon standoff
Smithsonian showdown intensifies as Trump administration issues a stark new warning
White House rips ‘activist’ Biden judge who upended Trump birthright citizenship order
Spanish prime minister promises to release all files on Ceuta invasion as thousands of illegal immigrants remain in enclave
Steel Across America tour lands at Fenway Park ahead of 25th anniversary of 9/11
Maria Bartiromo no longer with Fox News
Plane Carrying DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin Forced to Make Emergency Landing
Lindsay Clancy Effect? Child, 2, Pronounced Dead, Mother Hospitalized in ‘Domestic-Related Homicide’ in Sleepy Suburb

See also  Former president-turned-amateur artist George W. Bush debuting new paintings for 9/11 remembrance

“With all respiratory diseases, the only thing that stops the disease is herd immunity. About 80% of the people need to have had contact with the virus, and the majority of them won’t even have recognized that they were infected, or they had very, very mild symptoms, especially if they are children. So, it’s very important to keep the schools open and kids mingling to spread the virus to get herd immunity as fast as possible, and then the elderly people, who should be separated, and the nursing homes should be closed during that time, can come back and meet their children and grandchildren after about 4 weeks when the virus has been exterminated,” he added.

Wittkowski argued that the standard cycle of respiratory diseases is a two-week outbreak, including a peak, after which “it’s gone.” He pointed out that even in a regime of “social distancing,” the virus will still find ways to spread, just more slowly:


Excavation set to begin on Trump administration’s 250-foot triumphal arch amid legal battle
GOP candidate gets busted trying to plant drugs on his political rival
With Gloria Steinem’s Death, Establishment Media Silences the Conservative Half of America
Court Forbids Mom to Take Daughter, 13, to Normal Christian Church – Used the Word ‘Cult’ in Official Docs
Pirro joins UK in mass crackdown on Chinese-linked scam centers
Trump Admin Announces Intent to Remove Tax-Exempt Status from Woke Private Colleges
Watch: JD Vance Pays Tribute to Karoline Leavitt in First White House Press Briefing Since Her Departure
Dramatic video shows SWAT vehicle ramming tractor during tense Oregon standoff
Smithsonian showdown intensifies as Trump administration issues a stark new warning
White House rips ‘activist’ Biden judge who upended Trump birthright citizenship order
Spanish prime minister promises to release all files on Ceuta invasion as thousands of illegal immigrants remain in enclave
Steel Across America tour lands at Fenway Park ahead of 25th anniversary of 9/11
Maria Bartiromo no longer with Fox News
Plane Carrying DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin Forced to Make Emergency Landing
Lindsay Clancy Effect? Child, 2, Pronounced Dead, Mother Hospitalized in ‘Domestic-Related Homicide’ in Sleepy Suburb

You cannot stop the spread of a respiratory disease within a family, and you cannot stop it from spreading with neighbors, with people who are delivering, who are physicians—anybody. People are social, and even in times of social distancing, they have contacts, and any of those contacts could spread the disease. It will go slowly, and so it will not build up herd immunity, but it will happen. And it will go on forever unless we let it go.

Asked about Anthony Fauci, the White House medical expert who for weeks has been predicting significant numbers of COVID-19 deaths in America as well as major ongoing disruptions to daily life possibly for years, Wittkowski replied: “Well, I’m not paid by the government, so I’m entitled to actually do science.”

See also  Gloria Steinem, outspoken feminist leader, dies at 92

Story cited here.

Share this article:
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter