‘We want them infected’: Trump appointee demanded ‘herd immunity’ strategy, emails reveal

[Loudninja]

Stupid crazy assholes all of them. Posted by Plinko

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.

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"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…" Alexander added.

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"It may be that it will be best if we open up and flood the zone and let the kids and young folk get infected" in order to get "natural immunity…natural exposure," Alexander wrote on July 24 to Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn, Caputo and eight other senior officials. Caputo subsequently asked Alexander to research the idea, according to emails obtained by the House Oversight Committee's select subcommittee on coronavirus.

Alexander also argued that colleges should stay open to allow Covid-19 infections to spread, lamenting in a July 27 email to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield that "we essentially took off the battlefield the most potent weapon we had...younger healthy people, children, teens, young people who we needed to fastly [sic] infect themselves, spread it around, develop immunity, and help stop the spread."

Alexander was a top deputy of Caputo, who was personally installed by President Donald Trump in April to lead the health department's communications efforts. Officials told POLITICO that they believed that when Alexander made recommendations, he had the backing of the White House.
"It was understood that he spoke for Michael Caputo, who spoke for the White House," said Kyle McGowan, a Trump appointee who was CDC chief of staff before leaving this summer. "That's how they wanted it to be perceived."

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‘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.

www.politico.com

 

[Dartastic]

Charge them with crimes against humanity. Not joking.

 

[linkboy]

Charge them with crimes against humanity. Not joking.

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This.

Every single one of these chuckle-fucks needs to have the book thrown at them.

Fucking bastards.

 

[Isilia]

I guess he should have taken the initiative and got it for himself, but I don't think that happened!

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

Same as the UK. Our countries are run by monsters who care more about churning capitalism than human lives. And somehow deny the role that apolitical science has in a functional society.

 

[Psychotext]

Charge them with crimes against humanity. Not joking.

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It's hard to disagree. Intentionally allowing your population to be infected by a potentially deadly disease? How else could you categorise it?

 

[Jake2byFour]

Can't say i'm surprised in the slightest.

 

[LegendofJoe]

So the Trump administration wanted a lot more Americans to die. Good to know that 70+ million of my fellow countrymen and women voted for such upstanding people.

 

[CelestialAtom]

What a waste of oxygen this administration is.

 

[Spartacris]

Holy shit.
No words.

 

[Uhyve]

It may be that it will be best if we open up and flood the zone and let the kids and young folk get infected

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I wonder why Republicans/Conservatives are still all about keeping schools open, I thought they said they'd abandoned the herd immunity approach...

 

[WhiteRabbitEXE]

I know these people are stupid and evil, but I'll never comprehend this strategy. It's not a strategy. It's like saying "hey, this big forest fire is approaching the town, let's just burn everything down ourselves so there's nothing left for the fire to burn!"

 

[HeySeuss]

Probably based that on the country (Sweeden?) that tried doing this and it seemed to work initially until the second wave hit.

 

[Korigama]

I'd call these ghouls subhuman trash if not for the fact that the use of the word trash would be insulting to literal garbage.

 

[FreezePeach]

At the very least these folks involved in this should be forced into hiding for the rest of their lives.

 

[Host Samurai]

Murdering the entire country to own the libs

 

[Pandora012]

They really dis an economy > people thing. But I'm not surprised.

 

[The Albatross]

Weird sub note, but this phrase stuck out tome because it's just so unusual

"... flood the zone ..."

It's crazy how these phrases work their way through the Trump circle. "Flood the zone" is the nickname for the strategy to flood media/news agencies with so many bogus stories, just one after the other, that the negative stories that can sink you have trouble rising to the top amid just the sheer number of bull shit, some real, some false, some planted, some leaked. It's a phrase and strategy borrowed from the Kremlin, similar to the phrase "Deep state," which then ends up getting used to describe other things and applied everywhere.

 

[Garlador]

The fact that we have babies as young as 2 month olds dying from this virus is horrifying, and these insane morons need to be locked up. Not talk about it; legitimately put them behind bars for the safety of others.

 

[KtotheRoc]

Absolutely disgusting to think about how many Americans were just fine voting for this criminal administration.

Movies, TVs, video games, comic books, etc. didn't go far enough in their depictions of their villain characters.

 

[Jokerman]

Two professional football/soccer players are badly ill with this at the moment here. The risk might be smaller for younger people, but nowhere near zero.

 

[PeakPointMatrix]

The closer we get to January 20th, the further away it feels.

 

[Ultimate Bear Cub]

Just one of many incredibly infuriating things about these jackholes.

 

[Seesaw15]

At the very least these folks involved in this should be forced into hiding for the rest of their lives.3-6 months.

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Everyone of these people will be fine.

 

[Croc Man]

Not surprised, the idea wasn't uncommon back at the start... oh.
July?!? How can this still be the plan by July?

 

[Melkezadek]

How is it that we can have these people literally say shit like this and still have folks like Matthew McConaughey taking about how "the left needs to meet in the middle"?

People like him need to be forced to defend this. Ask them what "meet in the middle" looks like when faced with this level of insanity.

 

[sir_crocodile]

Same as the UK. Our countries are run by monsters who care more about churning capitalism than human lives. And somehow deny the role that apolitical science has in a functional society.

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It's even worse then the UK, this was in JULY. They'd already seen the UK reverse course after this policy was a disaster just at the "don't bother to contact trace" stage.

 

[Grym]

Not surprised with the way the whole admin has been acting for months

 

[Captain_Vyse]

Yet people keep voting Trump and GOP. The brainwashing is strong in this country. Also, this country has a serious lack of empathy.

 

[BWoog]

The fact that he almost won a second term is going to haunt me for a long while.

 

[krazen]

Sadly at least this showed there was at least an evil method to the madness. Still saying even them talking 'herd immunity' so late in the game was akin to a dude plagerizing a paper to hand in two weeks after the due date. They had no fucking plan, even that.

 

[Digital Dinosaur]

When this was just starting, a few people in the right wing sphere got caught saying some of the few remaining quiet parts out loud. Specifically, that it was good to "thin the herd" from time to time. It's increasingly easy to believe this is the real thinking behind people like Alexander. The rush for advocating herd immunity opportunistic - these fucks are at their core a death cult, and grow excited by any opportunity to inflict great harm in order to seize a new order out of the chaos.

And thinning the herd is always a useful bonus for them. Since it is axiomatic in their world view that the only people culled by the chaos they create will be the disposable, excess, and undesirable.

 

[Brawly Likes to Brawl]

And now we're having daily 9/11s

 

[yongeandcollege]

To be fair, I would expect this type of debate to be going on between public health officials behind closed doors.

 

[Kraid]

The fact that he almost won a second term is going to haunt me for a long while.

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74 million people voted for a fascist who objectively wanted a deadly virus to spread, uncontained, through the country. He lost by over 7 million votes, but Biden won the Electoral College because of ~70k votes in 3 states. I no longer think of it as "it can happen here." It feels like it will happen here.

 

[Deleted member 43657]

Charge them with crimes against humanity. Not joking.

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100%.

Where is the outrage? Where's the revolution? Come on, people, you're letting me down.

 

[Thorn]

100%.

Where is the outrage? Where's the revolution? Come on, people, you're letting me down.

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America just kinda lets corruption and shit happen. Helps that we're spread apart and 50% of the country is okay with this.

Not a single one of these fuckheads are going to see any justice, and it just makes me want to give up on society and life.

 

[TaySan]

Just a few more weeks until this bullshit is over. :( Feels like an eternity.

 

[Jordan117]

Cartoonishly evil.

 

[Deleted member 9305]

Upgrade from criminal negligence to criminal intent. Lock him up?

 

[Deleted member 39374]

The fact that he almost won a second term is going to haunt me for a long while.

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He's running again in 2024, and every single GOP candidate from now on is going to imitate his style. Be very afraid

 

[LegendofJoe]

Meanwhile my recently retired neighbor who is one of the most talented woodworkers in the entire country is fighting for his life.

We need to thin the herd though am I right?

/sarcasm

 

[Kard8p3]

anyone involved in this needs to die in prison

 

[Kyrios]

It was pretty evident that this was always the plan with this admin.

 

[bytesized]

This is the true plandemic. Fucking psychos.

 

[SNRUB]

Fuck these reptiles. And the worst part is that they'll get no comeuppance after all this is said and done.

He's running again in 2024, and every single GOP candidate from now on is going to imitate his style. Be very afraid

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Yup. People that think this is going to magically disappear Disney style the moment Biden is sworn in are in for a rude awakening. They're gonna double, or even triple down more than ever to claim victory again in four years.

 

[Dezzy]

Stop acting like herd immunity is a strategy. It's literally the absence of a strategy.
It's basically just saying screw it, let everyone get sick.

 

[TheOMan]

The fact that he almost won a second term is going to haunt me for a long while.

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It certainly does not bode well for 2022 or 2024.

 

[Nude_Tayne]

Their heads should be on pikes.

 

[nightstalker962]

"Our human capital stock is ready to get back to work"