{"id":214976,"date":"2020-10-14T07:23:34","date_gmt":"2020-10-14T07:23:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=214976"},"modified":"2020-10-18T07:34:09","modified_gmt":"2020-10-18T07:34:09","slug":"over-30000-health-experts-sign-declaration-against-covid-19-lockdowns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=214976","title":{"rendered":"Over 30,000 Health Experts Sign Declaration Against COVID-19 Lockdowns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Omid Ghoreishi — Epoch Times Oct 13, 2020<\/strong><\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/a>More than 32,000 medical doctors and health scientists from around the world have signed a petition<\/a><\/strong><\/span> against lockdowns put in place to curb the spread of COVID-19<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, saying the measures are causing \u201cirreparable damage.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As of Oct. 13, over<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a023,000 of the signatories were medical practitioners and 9,000 were medical and public health scientists. They have joined more than 400,000 members of the general public in signing the petition.<\/span><\/p>\n

The petition is co-authored by Dr. Martin Kulldorff, a Harvard professor and epidemiologist with expertise in detecting and monitoring infectious disease; Dr. Sunetra Gupta, an Oxford University professor and epidemiologist with expertise in immunology; and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University Medical School professor and epidemiologist with expertise in infectious disease and vulnerable populations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cComing 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,\u201d reads the petition, titled the Great Barrington Declaration, after the Massachusetts town where it was authored by the three experts on Oct. 4.<\/span><\/p>\n

The declaration says lockdowns result in worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings, lower childhood vaccination rates, and deteriorating mental health, to name a few issues, all of which will lead to high mortality rates in the years to come.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cKeeping students out of school is a grave injustice,\u201d the doctors write.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead of shutting everything down until a vaccine is available, the doctors say focus should be on minimizing mortality and social harm until herd immunity is reached. Herd immunity refers<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>to when a population becomes immune to an infectious disease, which the doctors say will eventually be reached for all populations, and can be assisted by, but not dependent upon, a vaccine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFortunately, 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,\u201d the declaration states.<\/span><\/p>\n

The declaration says public health officials should aim to protect the most vulnerable population, while allowing those who are not vulnerable to \u201cresume life as normal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Measures to protect the vulnerable population, the declaration says, can include examples such as minimizing staff rotations at nursing homes, delivering groceries and other essentials to retired people living at home, and the elderly meeting family members outside rather than inside when possible. Meanwhile, all members of society should take simple hygiene measures such as hand-washing and staying home when sick to bring down the herd immunity threshold, the doctors say.<\/span><\/p>\n

But young, low-risk adults should be allowed to work normally, rather than from home; schools should be opened for in-person teaching; and extracurricular activities such as sports should be resumed, the declaration says.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cArts, music, sport, and other cultural activities should resume. People who are more at risk may participate if they wish, while society as a whole enjoys the protection conferred upon the vulnerable by those who have built up herd immunity,\u201d the declaration says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Matt Strauss, one of the Canadian doctors who has put his name to the declaration, told the Toronto Sun<\/a><\/strong><\/span> that most medical professionals he has talked to agree that the lockdowns are bringing more harm than benefit.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even think my opinion is a minority opinion among the experts I work with,\u201d said Strauss, a critical care physician and professor at Queen\u2019s University School of Medicine.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the declaration also has its critics.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot reach herd immunity without a massive loss of life or a vaccine. It\u2019s that simple. Honestly, it boggles my mind that intelligent people are signing on to this statement,\u201d Dr. Irfan Dhalla, a general internist and a vice-president at Unity Health which operates two hospitals in Toronto, told the National Post<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. David Naylor, co-chair of Canada\u2019s COVID-19 immunity task force, told the Post that given the prospects of the eventual arrival of a COVID-19 vaccine, \u201cwhy on earth should we rush to embrace a reckless prescription for a demographically-selective national \u2018chickenpox party\u2019 involving a dangerous pathogen?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Letter to Ford Against Lockdowns<\/h2>\n

Continues \u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

32,000 medical doctors and health scientists from around the world have signed a petition against lockdowns, saying they are causing \u201cirreparable damage\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coronavirus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=214976"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214980,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214976\/revisions\/214980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=214976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=214976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=214976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}