White House Backs Pro-Herd Immunity Document Reportedly Signed by Medical Experts Like ‘Dr. I.P. Freely’
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It would appear the White House has embraced an open letter promoting herd immunity as a strategy for the coronavirus pandemic, even though the document is reportedly backed by at least some medical signatories who are obviously fake.
As Donald Trump continues to downplay the seriousness of Covid-19 (despite his recent infection), his administration has been split between medical professionals who still back social distancing guidelines, and advisers who support the president’s call to reopen schools and businesses. Multiple reports have described a recent teleconference call where a White House senior adviser told journalists that Trump’s policy approach falls in line with the proposals of the Great Barrington Declaration (GBD).
The GPD is an open letter that, according to its website, has been signed by approximately 448,000 concerned citizens, 9,500 medical and public health scientists, and 25,000 medical practitioners. The document argues that lockdowns have been detrimental to public health, that people less vulnerable to the virus should resume normal life, and that herd immunity is the preferable option for moving the world past the pandemic.
From the letter:
The most compassionate approach that balances the risks and benefits of reaching herd immunity, is to allow those who are at minimal risk of death to live their lives normally to build up immunity to the virus through natural infection, while better protecting those who are at highest risk. We call this Focused Protection.
The website does not provide a list of who has signed on with the GPD, but Sky News reported recently that they found “dozens of fake names on the list of medical signatories, which anyone can add to if they tick a box and enter a name. These included Dr. I.P. Freely, Dr. Person Fakename and Dr. Johnny Bananas, who listed himself as a ‘Dr of Hard Sums.'”
The report goes on to note that another signer who calls himself a medical professional just so happens to share his name with Harold Shipman. Shipman was an English general practitioner convicted of killing over 200 of his patients before committing suicide in 2004. Further questions about the GPD’s support from the scientific community are raised by how other medical practitioners signed it despite having no expertise in epidemiology and virology.
