A large group of doctors and health scientists – over 30,000 to date – have signed onto the Barrington Declaration. That declaration states that: current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health. They further note these effects “include lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings, and deteriorating mental health – leading to greater excess mortality in years to come, with the working class and younger members of society carrying the heaviest burden.”
In addition these specialists say that keeping children out of school “is a grave injustice.”
They argue for an approach to COVID-19 called “focussed protection.” Since we know now that this virus is most deadly to the elderly population, particularly those over 70 years of age, they say we should focus on protecting that population.
This group of doctors and scientists also believe that once more people have been exposed to the virus – thereby gaining immunity to the virus – that the less likely the risk of infection will be to all including the most vulnerable. They, as a group, have avoided any criticism or debate about the protections masks might offer, instead, they are arguing that the virus is not particularly harmful to the bulk of our population and the general lockdowns worldwide have been more harmful rather than helfpul – both in terms of physical ailments, as well as psychological problems. They focus on protecting the most vulnerable while ensuring the bulk of our population can continue to function as normally as possible.
As immunity builds in the population, the risk of infection to all – including the vulnerable – falls. We know that all populations will eventually reach herd immunity – i.e. the point at which the rate of new infections is stable – and that this can be assisted by (but is not dependent upon) a vaccine. Our goal should therefore be to minimize mortality and social harm until we reach herd immunity.
Great Barrington Declaration
The three organizers of this petition are:
Dr. Martin Kulldorff, professor of medicine at Harvard University, a biostatistician, and epidemiologist with expertise in detecting and monitoring infectious disease outbreaks and vaccine safety evaluations.
Dr. Sunetra Gupta, professor at Oxford University, an epidemiologist with expertise in immunology, vaccine development, and mathematical modeling of infectious diseases.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, professor at Stanford University Medical School, a physician, epidemiologist, health economist, and public health policy expert focusing on infectious diseases and vulnerable populations.
As of today, there were 25,339 medical professionals and 9,578 medical & public health scientists who had signed the declaration. Additionally, another 451,719 “concerned citizens” had also signed the declaration.
A video of their announcement can be viewed below:
