Herd Immunity Is Not a Strategy

One of the pandemic’s most insidious misconceptions is getting closer to explicit national policy. On Monday, The Washington Post reported that a top Trump medical adviser, Scott Atlas, has been “urging the White House to embrace a controversial ‘herd immunity’ strategy.” Atlas subsequently denied the report, though during his time as a Fox News commentator he consistently argued in favor of fringe approaches that go hand in hand with the idea: namely that city and state shutdowns are deadlier than the coronavirus itself.

The idea of abandoning preventive measures and letting the virus infect people has already gotten traction in the administration. Just last week, Atlas moved to ease up on the most important strategy to fight the virus—widespread —by telling the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to to advise testing asymptomatic people. On Monday night, the president the concept in an appearance on Fox News, explaining, “Once you get to a certain number—we use—once you get to a certain number, it’s going to go away.”