The Great Barrington Declaration is an initiative concerning the physical and mental health damages that the Covid-19 policies may provoke. Dr. Martin Kulldorff, professor of Medicine at Harvard, Dr. Sunetra Gupta, professor at Oxford University, and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, professor at Stanford University Medical School, recommend an approach called ‘Focused Protection’.
The professors believe that current lockdown policies cause devastating effects on public health. From fewer cancer screenings, to lower childhood vaccination rates, deteriorating mental health, and worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes are a few of the problems leading to lowering life expectancy and increasing mortality in the immediate future.
The underprivileged are harmed, the working class and the younger members are victims of this situation and the children do not go to school.
Focused Protection is an approach that tries to balance the risks and benefits of reaching ‘herd’ immunity by allowing those at minimal risk of death to live their lives normally to build up immunity to the virus through natural infection. ‘Herd’ immunity can be the point at which the rate of new infections is stable and it can be assisted by a vaccine. Until then, the doctors’ goal should be to minimize mortality and the governments’ to minimize social harm. The professors suggest that nursing homes should perform frequent testing, staff rotation should be minimized, retired people should stay at home and meet their families outside.
Why should all people, even the healthier population, be impeded to resume life as normal?
Simple hygiene measures, such as hand washing, wearing masks, and staying at home when sick, should be practiced by everyone at all times. Schools and restaurants should be open, sports should be resumed, people should work normally. If society was still functioning while its vulnerable members were protected, ‘herd immunity’ would be the best solution.
Until now, a great number of doctors have already signed the Declaration from all around the world and still counting. It is international, written for the public, fellow scientists, and government officials on October 2-4, 2020. The reader can find the Declaration, videos, and more information on the website https://gbdeclaration.org/ and can read it in 44 languages.
It is named after the location Great Barrington, Massachusetts, where it was written and signed. The American Institute for Economic Research offered to help with the video recording, providing a location, equipment, and a cameraman pro bono. None of the authors or cosigners received any money or salary from anyone for either the Declaration or the video recording.
On the same website, the reader can easily find the petition and sign it. It is a sustainable solution and an antidote for the paranoia we are living in.