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Paul Alexander, a Trump administration appointee, pushed for a herd immunity strategy that would have millions of healthy people exposed to the coronavirus.
Internal emails
Politico revealed that Alexander, the former top deputy of Michael Caputo at the Department of Health and Human Services, wrote to his superiors on July 4 that the only way to end the pandemic was “to establish herd [immunity], and it only comes about allowing the non-high risk groups expose themselves to the virus. PERIOD.
He added, “Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk . so we use them to develop herd. … We want them infected.
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POLITICO
‘We want them infected’: Trump appointee demanded ‘herd immunity’ strategy, emails reveal
Then-HHS science adviser Paul Alexander called for millions of Americans to be infected as means of fighting Covid-19.
President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House. | AP Photo/Alex Brandon
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A top Trump appointee repeatedly urged top health officials to adopt a herd immunity approach to Covid-19 and allow millions of Americans to be infected by the virus, according to internal emails obtained by a House watchdog and shared with POLITICO.
“There is no other way, we need to establish herd, and it only comes about allowing the non-high risk groups expose themselves to the virus. PERIOD, then-science adviser Paul Alexander wrote on July 4 to his boss, Health and Human Services assistant secretary for public affairs Michael Caputo, and six other senior officials.
Hereâs how the Trump administration crushed the C.D.C., according to two who were there.
Kyle McGowan, a former C.D.C. chief of staff, outside his home in Roswell, Ga., this month. He and his deputy have gone public with their disillusionment.Credit.Audra Melton for The New York Times
Dec. 16, 2020
Kyle McGowan, a former chief of staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and his deputy, Amanda Campbell, were installed in 2018 as two of the youngest political appointees in the history of the worldâs premier public health agency, young Republicans returning to their native Georgia to dream jobs.