Nearly 6,000 health experts around the world have now come out in support of the anti-lockdown orders that have kept people from resuming their lives amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Nearly 6,000 health experts around the world have now come out in support against the lockdown orders that have kept people from resuming their lives amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Experts have come out in support of the anti-lockdown movement that has slowly grown around the world, pointing to the devastating effects it has had on people's physical and mental health, according to the BBC.
They are now calling for the protection and focused attention on the vulnerable, while encouraging those who are healthy to resume life as normal. But this declaration has come with pushback from the scientific community.
Critics have said that a more targeted approach could make it challenging to protect vulnerable people entirely, adding that the risk of long-term complications of the coronavirus can put others at risk.
This movement by health experts has been called the Great Barrington Declaration—with its members saying that there has been an insufficient emphasis on "non-Covid harms" in the decision-making when it comes to the virus.
Though they point out that the coronavirus is 1,000 times more of a risk to the old and infirm, a child is more at risk of contracting the seasonal flu than COVID-19. These experts have said that as immunity builds in the population, the risk of infection to all falls dramatically.
The BBC reported that "the declaration recommends a number of measures to protect the vulnerable, including regular testing of care-home workers, with a move as far as possible towards using staff who have acquired immunity."
But there are a number of experts who do not agree with this approach. University of Leeds school of medicine associate professor Dr. Stephen Griffin says that the Great Barrington Declaration has "ethical, logistical, and scientific flaws."
Griffin said that those most vulnerable come from all walks of life and deserve to be treated "equally," adding that the long-term effects of COVID-19 have left people with mild infections and problems such as fatigue and join pain for months.
Dr. Simon Clarke—University of Reading cellular biology expert—said that it is not year clear how viable herd immunity is.
"Natural, lasting, protective immunity to the disease would be needed," he said, adding that "we don't know how effective or long-lasting people's post-infection immunity will be."
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