William Haseltine: “Herd immunity is another word for mass murder”

Anderson Cooper 360

CNN

News

3.7 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2020

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In an open letter signed by 80 scientists from around the world, they claim the idea of herd immunity is a “dangerous idea” that could lead to unnecessary deaths and economic turmoil while President Trump continues to hold large rallies with little mask-wearing and no social distancing. William Haseltine, Chair and President of ACCESS Health International, said he is “extremely concerned that the President is being advised by people who speak of herd immunity” and said it is “another word for mass murder.” Dr. Richard Besser is the former Acting Director of the CDC. He tells Anderson Cooper if “people all were to wear masks, we’d have a lot more economic activity than we currently have.” Plus, according to the Washington Post, a Trump-hyped investigation into whether Obama-era officials improperly requested names redacted in U.S. intelligence documents or “unmasking” has concluded without any charges. John Brennan and James Clapper both worked for the Obama administration, Brennan as CIA Director and Clapper as the Director of National Intelligence. They join AC360 to react to the conclusion of the investigation and Brennan says it was clearly a “politically motivated probe.” Airdate: October 14, 2020 Guests: Dr. Richard Besser John Brennan Lt. Gen. James Clapper (Ret.) To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Good evening. Thanks for joining us as you look at the president's third straight night
0:04.5	on his potential super spreader tour. Think about this. Minnesota's Department of Health
0:08.8	tonight reports it now is treas 16 cases of COVID to one of the president trips there
0:13.9	last month. It's clear the president doesn't care about the virus spreading at his rallies
0:19.0	just as he seems unconcerned about it spreading at numerous indoor and outdoor White House events
0:23.7	over the last several weeks and months. The question tonight has the president decided
0:27.8	to go for so called herd immunity. Is that in fact already the un-stated policy of this
0:33.4	White House? Now the idea as you probably know simply put is to let as many healthy people
0:37.8	as possible catch the virus. It's not a new idea and it's one the president once said
0:42.4	he rejected but now it certainly seems to be willing to let as many of his own followers
0:48.3	risk infection as possible at his own rallies. The idea of herd immunity made headlines again
0:54.3	recently with three scientists put out what they called the Great Barrington Declaration.
0:59.0	Quoting from it now they wrote the most compassionate approach that balances the risks and benefits
1:03.0	of reaching herd immunity is to allow those who are at minimal risk of death to live their
1:07.8	lives normally to build up immunity to the virus through natural infection while better
1:12.6	protecting those who are at highest risk. We call this focus protection. Now the Declaration
1:18.5	presents no data. It was not published and appeared reviewed publication but it does
1:22.2	sound familiar. Here's what radiologists and the doctor who now has the presidency,
1:26.5	Eurscott Atlas was saying on the subject in April. We can allow a lot of people to get
1:34.6	infected. Those who are not at risk to be to die or have a serious hospital requiring
1:41.5	illness. We should be fine with letting them get infected generating immunity on their
1:48.7	own and the more immunity in the community the better we can eradicate the threat of
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from CNN, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of CNN and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.