Three weeks ago, President Trump and his wife contracted COVID-19. Trump was incredibly cavalier about his symptoms, posting on Twitter that there was nothing to fear about the coronavirus and championing his good health. Now, it appears that the administration has found something new to champion: herd immunity.  

The concept of herd immunity began gaining traction in the news when a small group of academics wrote a document on Oct. 4 called the Great Barrington Declaration. In it, they spoke about removing current policies put in place for COVID-19 and instead replacing them with practices to encourage herd immunity, “Those who are not vulnerable should immediately be allowed to resume life as normal.” According to the document, this would entail reopening schools and universities, businesses, sporting events and more.

Alex Azar, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, met with the authors of the declaration and spoke out in support of their plan, stating, “We heard strong reinforcement of the Trump Administration’s strategy of aggressively protecting the vulnerable while opening schools and the workplace.” The administration’s support of this document is alarming because the plan goes directly against several COVID-19 policies implemented to protect people over the past seven months. 

What exactly is herd immunity, and can it really work? According to Mayo Clinic, herd immunity is defined as “when a large portion of a community (the herd) becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. As a result, the whole community becomes protected — not just those who are immune.” Theoretically, it sounds like a great idea. According to many health experts, though, allowing the virus to spread freely in order to achieve herd immunity is actually incredibly dangerous. 

An article from CNBC highlighted two such top health experts who do not support it: Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Mike Ryan. Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. During a live stream on Instagram, he spoke about why herd immunity is not an option: “If everyone contracted it, even with the relatively high percentage of people without symptoms. . . a lot of people are going to die.” 

Ryan, the World Health Organization executive director, said in a live Q&A that most scientists believe that 60-80% of people need to either be vaccinated or have natural antibodies to herd immunity to work. There is currently no vaccine for COVID-19, and CNBC emphasized that, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, only 2% of the U.S. population has been infected with the virus. 

It is irresponsible of the Trump administration to support the Great Barrington Declaration when there is clear evidence that carrying it out will have significant consequences. This document only serves the best interests of the administration. It does not consider the interests of those whom the Trump administration is supposed to serve: the public. Supporting well-informed health experts and not misleading political interests is the best course of action the public can take to address COVID-19 and return to “life as normal.”