Had you heard of the Great Barrington Declaration? Neither had I, until I came across a brief mention that searches for it have been submerged by Google – down the memory hole and it’s scarcely two weeks old – promulgated on October 4th, 2020.
I would urge readers to peruse the text – it’s not long, one page, in various languages, signed by various experts, urging – well, I will let this excerpt speak for itself:
Fortunately, our understanding of the virus is growing. We know that vulnerability to death from COVID-19 is more than a thousand-fold higher in the old and infirm than the young. Indeed, for children, COVID-19 is less dangerous than many other harms, including influenza.
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.
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.
Adopting measures to protect the vulnerable should be the central aim of public health responses to COVID-19.
As far as the lockdowns go, here are some of it deleterious effects, plain to anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear, who seem rather rare on the ground these days: