Why Won’t the Media Listen to These Scientists? Prize-winning biologists vs. compelling narratives. By James Freeman
This week dozens of esteemed medical experts with blue-chip academic credentials published a warning about the destructive policies adopted to address Covid-19. Since the Sunday publication of this “Great Barrington Declaration” more than a thousand biological scientists and more than 1,500 medical practitioners have added their names to the petition. Yet it’s been almost entirely ignored by the media outlets that spend much of their days presenting themselves as obedient to science.
Maybe this is because the accomplished group of scientists behind the declaration is refusing to obey political narratives. According to the petition:
Coming from both the left and right, and around the world, we have devoted our careers to protecting people. Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health. The results (to name a few) 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. Keeping students out of school is a grave injustice.
The scientists go on to note that the poor are “disproportionately harmed” by current policies and that for children, “COVID-19 is less dangerous than many other harms, including influenza.” They add that the best approach “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.”
This means that those “who are not vulnerable should immediately be allowed to resume life as normal,” including attending schools, going to restaurants, participating in sports and even gathering at public events. Meanwhile attention should be focused on protecting those most at risk. According to the scientists.
…nursing homes should use staff with acquired immunity and perform frequent [polymerase chain reaction] testing of other staff and all visitors. Staff rotation should be minimized. Retired people living at home should have groceries and other essentials delivered to their home. When possible, they should meet family members outside rather than inside. A comprehensive and detailed list of measures, including approaches to multi-generational households, can be implemented, and is well within the scope and capability of public health professionals.
Imagine if places like New York and New Jersey had followed this plan, instead of squandering vast resources locking down low-risk populations while failing to prioritize the protection of the elderly. Somehow Gov. Phil Murphy (D., N.J.) has largely avoided media censure even though, adjusting for population, the residents of his state have suffered more Covid deaths than anywhere else in the country. Yes, New York has suffered the most Covid deaths overall. But on a per capita basis, New Jersey has been even worse.
And much of the Garden State mortality occurred in nursing homes run by the state government. While Mr. Murphy spent much of the last seven months crushing restaurants and dithering over the conditions under which he would allow low-risk young people to play and learn, many Garden Staters who really needed help remained vulnerable.
The Journal’s Christopher Weaver and Nora Eckert report from Edison, N.J., on a particularly deadly facility run by the state of New Jersey:
At the beginning of the outbreak that would eventually make the Menlo Park Veterans Memorial Home one of the deadliest Covid-19 sites in the country, workers tried to contain the virus by hanging a piece of plastic across a hall.
The plastic sheet separating virus patients from dementia sufferers soon sagged, according to interviews and photographs. Somebody taped up its opening, leaving a gap in the makeshift fortifications…
The nursing home’s chief executive waited more than a week after one resident tested positive to alert families, according to interviews of family members, medical records and documents. The short-staffed facility placed visibly ill residents in the same rooms as healthy ones.
As deaths soared in April, administrators tallied them in a way that minimized the coronavirus toll… A Wall Street Journal analysis of available official data suggests Menlo suffered more Covid deaths than any other nursing home in the country.
Can we please listen to the scientists now? Media pundits were appalled when President Trump said in a Monday video, “I learned so much about Coronavirus. And one thing that’s for certain, don’t let it dominate you. Don’t be afraid of it. You’re going to beat it. We have the best medical equipment. We have the best medicines all developed recently. And you’re going to beat it.”
Epidemiologist Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a professor at Stanford University Medical School and declaration co-author, appeared on Fox News Monday and offered this critique of the president’s remarks:
Can I say about the overall message? That’s exactly what I learned about public health, what you’re supposed to do. You’re not supposed to sow panic. You’re supposed to reassure, give accurate information about risks, trust people to make good judgments on their own behalf. The president did that, I think, tonight, don’t you think?
… It is accurate and consistent with the data that COVID is not a death sentence. And I think we’ve created this idea in the public mind that it is something so unique and so deadly that we should utterly end all normal existence as a result of it. That’s not right.
We can have a much better way, protect the vulnerable, shield them for a short period of time until we reach a level where there’s population immunity and then for the rest of the world, let us live our lives. And for folks who are vulnerable, who, you know, if your life is meaningless without hugging your grandchildren, you have to balance risk and everything we do in our lives.
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