‘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.
WHCA dinner gunman pleads not guilty to attempted Trump assassination charges
Democrats consider plan to wipe conservatives off Virginia Supreme Court: Report
Jeff Landry dismisses concerns about 45,000 discarded ballots after suspended primaries: ‘It’s not my fault’
Former Dem gov in hot seat for ‘complete failure’ in ‘INSANE’ early release of thousands of inmates
House Freedom Caucus vows ‘gloves are coming off’ as FISA deadline looms
Alert: American Who Was on Hantavirus Cruise Ship Tests Positive, as 2nd Passenger Now Showing Symptoms
Frontier Plane Hits Pedestrian During Takeoff at Denver Airport
US Sanctions Foreign Entities Accused Of Sharing Satellite Imagery, Access to Arms to Prop Up Iran’s War Effort
The unexpected force keeping beef prices high and why the pressure could last for years
How Al Qaeda repositioned itself to dominate the central Sahel
Pennsylvania man accused of fatal arson after woman allegedly rejected his advances
Virginia Dems Make Glaring Errors In Rushed Court Motion To Save Gerrymandering Scheme
Hegseth says Pentagon will review Mark Kelly’s public statements about classified briefing amid ongoing feud
Rebukes of Trump’s Pick for FDA Head Miss One Critical Fact
Union-funded anti-Spencer Pratt ad sparks backlash as critics say it could help him
“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:
WHCA dinner gunman pleads not guilty to attempted Trump assassination charges
Democrats consider plan to wipe conservatives off Virginia Supreme Court: Report
Jeff Landry dismisses concerns about 45,000 discarded ballots after suspended primaries: ‘It’s not my fault’
Former Dem gov in hot seat for ‘complete failure’ in ‘INSANE’ early release of thousands of inmates
House Freedom Caucus vows ‘gloves are coming off’ as FISA deadline looms
Alert: American Who Was on Hantavirus Cruise Ship Tests Positive, as 2nd Passenger Now Showing Symptoms
Frontier Plane Hits Pedestrian During Takeoff at Denver Airport
US Sanctions Foreign Entities Accused Of Sharing Satellite Imagery, Access to Arms to Prop Up Iran’s War Effort
The unexpected force keeping beef prices high and why the pressure could last for years
How Al Qaeda repositioned itself to dominate the central Sahel
Pennsylvania man accused of fatal arson after woman allegedly rejected his advances
Virginia Dems Make Glaring Errors In Rushed Court Motion To Save Gerrymandering Scheme
Hegseth says Pentagon will review Mark Kelly’s public statements about classified briefing amid ongoing feud
Rebukes of Trump’s Pick for FDA Head Miss One Critical Fact
Union-funded anti-Spencer Pratt ad sparks backlash as critics say it could help him
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.”
Story cited here.
