S1E48 / A False Promise: Herd Immunity and Herd Mentality / Mark Pagel & Tom Frieden

EPIDEMIC with Dr. Celine Gounder

KFF Health News and Just Human Productions

Society & Culture, #Eradication, Medicine, #Covid, Science, Life Sciences, #Sarscov2, Documentary, #Coronavirus, #Covid19, Health & Fitness, #Smallpox

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2020

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"I would put this in very plain English: The way to protect the vulnerable is to have fewer infections, not more infections." - Dr. Tom Frieden Talk of achieving herd immunity without a vaccine is back in the news, despite the consensus among public health experts that this approach would cost hundreds of thousands of American lives. Former CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden talks about his recent op-ed against this approach and the "one-two punch" to get the pandemic under control. Then, evolutionary biologist Dr. Mark Pagel explains why some of the traits that make humans so successful as a species are getting in the way of an effective response to the pandemic, especially when it comes to wearing a face mask. This podcast was created by Just Human Productions. We're powered and distributed by Simplecast. We're supported, in part, by listeners like you. #SARSCoV2 #COVID19 #COVID #coronavirus

Transcript

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0:00.0	There is no evidence to suggest that allowing people to get infected is going to be a good route to sooner economic recovery.
0:14.0	Welcome back to Epidemic, the podcast about the science public health and social impacts of the coronavirus
0:24.4	pandemic.
0:40.0	It's the idea that when enough people are immune to a disease,
0:43.2	transmission slows to the point where it's no longer a threat.
0:46.7	There's just not enough other people to infect
0:48.9	and the disease dies out.
0:51.0	But trying to achieve this without a vaccine is controversial.
0:54.0	Proponents of so-called natural herd immunity say this strategy will allow the
0:59.0	economy to reopen and get children back to school.
1:02.0	Some of the most heated public debates about it
1:05.0	have been between Senator Rand Paul and Dr Tony Fauchy.
1:08.0	Or they've developed enough community immunity
1:12.0	that they're no longer having the pandemic because they have
1:14.5	enough immunity in New York City to actually stop. I challenge that
1:18.0	Senator because I want to please sir I would like to be able to do this because this happens with
1:23.6	Senator Rand all the time you were not listening to what the director of the
1:28.6	CDC said that in New York it's about 22%. If you believe 22% is hurt immunity, I believe you're alone in that.
1:38.8	This approach has been widely criticized by a majority of public health experts.
1:45.2	But the herd immunity strategy has gotten a boost recently.
1:48.7	On October 4th, something called the Great Barrington Declaration was released. It calls for lifting all
1:54.6	pandemic control measures. The three original signers of the declaration were
	...

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