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What is The Great Barrington Declaration?
Written by three scientists, The Great Barrington Declaration (GBD) is a document that feels genuine at times. It petitions to protect the vulnerable and the underprivileged. It appeals to reduce social and physical harms. But the deepest appeal, one which we can all relate to, is the call to return to life as we knew it — but only for those those less likely to die from COVID-19. It suggests that low-risk young adults should be exposed to SARS-CoV-2, ASAP, while the vulnerable remain in modified lockdown. This way, the authors contend, the entire population will achieve “herd immunity”.
What is herd immunity?
Herd immunity is the idea that if enough people are vaccinated, then we can better protect the unvaccinated. A brilliant reddit user created an animation explaining this concept above. The more people vaccinated (yellow dots), the less infection (red lines) can spread to the unvaccinated (blue dots). The GBD implies that we should expose unvaccinated people to the disease, the sooner the better. Questionable and dangerous ideas like these can hurt Americans. There are plenty of reasons why the GBD can put your family at risk — here are three:
#1. COVID-19 can have lasting consequences.
Sequela (plural: sequelae) is a medical term meaning serious consequences can result from a prior illness. Studies suggest that long-term damage to the heart can occur after COVID-19. We simply don’t know enough about COVID-19 to be exposing an entire generation of young adults to long-term harm.
