THE GREAT BARRINGTON DECLARATION

Posted on October 13, 2020 by Tom Salmon
Illustration of the morphology of coronaviruses; the club-shaped viral spike peplomers, coloured red, create the look of a corona surrounding the virion, when viewed electron microscopically (from here (en.wikipedia.org))

I heard about The Great Barrington Declaration this morning on WMAL‘s Mornings on the Mall. Here is how the declaration begins.

As infectious disease epidemiologists and public health scientists we have grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies, and recommend an approach we call Focused Protection. 

Coming from both the left and right, and around the world, we have devoted our careers to protecting people. Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health. The results (to name a few) include lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings and deteriorating mental health – leading to greater excess mortality in years to come, with the working class and younger members of society carrying the heaviest burden. Keeping students out of school is a grave injustice. 

Keeping these measures in place until a vaccine is available will cause irreparable damage, with the underprivileged disproportionately harmed. (continued here (gbdeclaration.org))

What should we make of the declaration? Well, we are always being told “the science says”, “to follow the the science”, that “the science is settled”, and so forth. The idea is that “science” has the answer and that the “science” is not debatable. Nonsense! Science is like any other type of knowledge. We know “something”, but we have incomplete knowledge. Now we each have to make sense of what we know and figure out what we can do with what we know. In politics, debate is “required” to make the best decisions.

Various political interests would have us do what they want us to do, and what these various political interests want us to do is not necessarily in the best interests of our family, friends, neighbors, and countrymen. So, some of these various political interests would scare us into doing what they want us to do. The signers of The Great Barrington Declaration have provided us an opportunity to resume the debate and to do so calmly.

Contact the people who lead us.

Today is the last day to register to vote. Make sure you are registered. Make certain you vote. See pwcvotes.org for information early voting. Early, in-person voting is now in progress.

For the sake of the children, please reopen our society. Stop imprisoning people. Protect the vulnerable.

References.

 

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2 Responses to THE GREAT BARRINGTON DECLARATION

  1. boudicabpi says:
    October 13, 2020 at 11:33 am

    Reblogged this on Boudica BPI Weblog and commented:
    H/T Citizen Tom

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