Martin Kulldorff: Difference between revisions

== Views on COVID-19==

{{further|Great Barrington Declaration}}

{{POV-section|date=March 2024}}

{{Tone|section|date=March 2024}}

 

In 2020, Kulldorff was invited to meet with leaders, lawyers and staff at the [[American Institute for Economic Research]] (AIER), an American [[Libertarianism|libertarian]] [[think tank]].<ref name=urg/> Following the meeting Kulldorff took the lead in an effort to oppose lockdowns in favor of pursuing [[COVID-19]] herd immunity before vaccines became available. His efforts resulted in the [[Great Barrington Declaration]], an [[open letter]] co-authored with Oxford’s [[Sunetra Gupta]] and Stanford’s [[Jay Bhattacharya]] for the AIER.<ref name=urg/> The document stated that lower-risk groups would develop herd immunity through infection while vulnerable groups should be protected from the virus.<ref name="barrington2">{{cite web|last=Gorski|first=David|author-link=David Gorski|title=The Great Barrington Declaration: COVID-19 deniers follow the path laid down by creationists, HIV/AIDS denialists, and climate science deniers|url=https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/great-barrington-declaration/|website=Science-Based Medicine|date=October 12, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Burki|first=Talha Khan|date=February 1, 2021|title=Herd immunity for COVID-19|journal=The Lancet Respiratory Medicine|language=English|volume=9|issue=2|pages=135–136|doi=10.1016/S2213-2600(20)30555-5|issn=2213-2600|pmc=7832483|pmid=33245861}}</ref> The [[World Health Organization]], the [[National Institutes of Health]] and other public-health bodies said such a policy lacked a sound scientific basis.<ref name="thehill-dozens">{{Cite web|last=Zilbermints|first=Regina|date=October 15, 2020|title=Dozens of public health groups, experts blast 'herd immunity' strategy backed by White House|url=https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/521159-dozens-of-public-health-groups-experts-blast-herd-immunity-strategy-backed|access-date=January 22, 2022|website=[[The Hill (newspaper)|The Hill]]|language=en}}</ref><ref name="wsj-touts" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=Gordon|first=Elana|date=October 20, 2020|title=Public health experts warn against herd immunity strategy to manage COVID-19|url=https://www.pri.org/stories/2020-10-20/public-health-experts-warn-against-herd-immunity-strategy-manage-covid-19|access-date=August 27, 2021|website=The World from PRX|language=en|quote=As herd immunity gains new ground as a possible public health strategy, a growing chorus of public health experts is speaking out against it as an extremely dangerous idea. ... Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director of the World Health Organization, called the herd-immunity strategy unethical. ... In response to the mounting attention, dozens of health researchers from around the globe published what they've called the John Snow Memorandum last Thursday in the medical journal The Lancet.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Swanson|first=Ian|date=October 5, 2020|title=Trump health official meets with doctors pushing herd immunity|url=https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/519727-trump-health-official-meets-with-doctors-pushing-herd-immunity|access-date=August 27, 2021|website=[[The Hill (newspaper)|The Hill]]|language=en|quote=The mainstream view of epidemiologists and public health experts, including the nation's top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci and the World Health Organization, is that the best way to get through COVID-19 and protect people who are at risk for serious illness is to not get sick in the first place by wearing masks and practicing social distancing.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Achenbach|first=Joel|date=October 14, 2020|title=Proposal to hasten herd immunity to the coronavirus grabs White House attention but appalls top scientists|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/covid-herd-immunity/2020/10/10/3910251c-0a60-11eb-859b-f9c27abe638d_story.html|quote=A senior administration official told reporters in a background briefing call Monday that the proposed strategy — which has been denounced by other infectious-disease experts and called "fringe" and "dangerous" by National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins — supports what has been Trump's policy for months. ... "What I worry about with this is it's being presented as if it's a major alternative view that's held by large numbers of experts in the scientific community. That is not true," Collins, NIH director, said in an interview.}}</ref> Scientists dismissed the policy as impossible in practice, unethical and [[pseudoscientific]],<ref name=gbdfringe>