Biker wrote: ↑Fri Dec 25, 2020 4:55 pm Well thats nice, eh?
Fauci admits to LYING about herd immunity numbers to encourage vaccinations
This is not the first time that Fauci has admitted to deceiving the public for utilitarian purposes in regard to coronavirus.
Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted in an interview with The New York Times that he played around with the number of vaccinations required for herd immunity in order to subtly encourage Americans to get vaccinated.
"When polls said only about half of all Americans would take a vaccine, I was saying herd immunity would take 70 to 75 percent. Then, when newer surveys said 60 percent or more would take it, I thought, ‘I can nudge this up a bit,’ so I went to 80, 85."
Epidemiologists at the beginning of the pandemic had asserted that somewhere between 60 and 70 percent of Americans would need to receive the coronavirus vaccine in order for herd immunity to be established, figures which are still touted by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Dr. Fauci repeated such figures throughout the pandemic, but about a month ago he started to provide different, higher figures in interviews. In an interview given last month, Fauci suggested that up to 75 percent of Americans would need to be vaccinated in order to establish herd immunity. Just last week, Fauci said in an interview with CNBC that the rate of vaccination may need to be as high as 85 percent or greater.
Now Fauci is suggesting that up to 90 percent of the population requires vaccinations.
"We need to have some humility here," Fauci said. "We really don’t know what the real number is. I think the real range is somewhere between 70 to 90 percent. But, I’m not going to say 90 percent."
This is not the first time that Fauci has admitted to deceiving the public for utilitarian purposes in regard to coronavirus. In the early months of the pandemic, Fauci claimed that there is no reason to wear masks to prevent the spread of the virus as they probably would not work. He later admitted that masks are helpful for preventing the spread of the virus, and claimed that he said otherwise to prevent the public from stocking up on personal protective equipment when hospitals were in short supply of them.
Changing the declared herd immunity requirements were not entirely deceptive, however. The coronavirus spreading around the globe is novel, meaning it has never been seen in humans before, and scientific data regarding issues such as herd immunity was practically absent in the early months of the pandemic. In addition, the virus has mutated to become more contagious over time, with the new strain discovered in the UK in the past week being the most infectious yet.
Regardless, the main reason for playing around with the numbers appears to be that it would be discouraging to offer such a high vaccination rate to Americans when such numbers appear to be out of reach.
"We need to have some humility here," Fauci said. "We really don’t know what the real number is. I think the real range is somewhere between 70 to 90 percent. But, I’m not going to say 90 percent."
He thinks the 60 to 70 percent number is too low. I agree. The herd immunity argument is a myth and shouldn't even be part of the discussion. It doesn't exist.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/24/heal ... virus.html
In a telephone interview the next day, Dr. Fauci acknowledged that he had slowly but deliberately been moving the goal posts. He is doing so, he said, partly based on new science, and partly on his gut feeling that the country is finally ready to hear what he really thinks.
Hard as it may be to hear, he said, he believes that it may take close to 90 percent immunity to bring the virus to a halt — almost as much as is needed to stop a measles outbreak.
Asked about Dr. Fauci’s conclusions, prominent epidemiologists said that he might be proven right. The early range of 60 to 70 percent was almost undoubtedly too low, they said, and the virus is becoming more transmissible, so it will take greater herd immunity to stop it.
Dr. Fauci said that weeks ago, he had hesitated to publicly raise his estimate because many Americans seemed hesitant about vaccines, which they would need to accept almost universally in order for the country to achieve herd immunity.
Now that some polls are showing that many more Americans are ready, even eager, for vaccines, he said he felt he could deliver the tough message that the return to normal might take longer than anticipated.
“When polls said only about half of all Americans would take a vaccine, I was saying herd immunity would take 70 to 75 percent,” Dr. Fauci said. “Then, when newer surveys said 60 percent or more would take it, I thought, ‘I can nudge this up a bit,’ so I went to 80, 85.”
“We need to have some humility here,” he added. “We really don’t know what the real number is. I think the real range is somewhere between 70 to 90 percent. But, I’m not going to say 90 percent.”
Doing so might be discouraging to Americans, he said, because he is not sure there will be enough voluntary acceptance of vaccines to reach that goal. Although sentiments about vaccines in polls have bounced up and down this year, several current ones suggest that about 20 percent of Americans say they are unwilling to accept any vaccine.
Also, Dr. Fauci noted, a herd-immunity figure at 90 percent or above is in the range of the infectiousness of measles.
“I’d bet my house that Covid isn’t as contagious as measles,” he said.
Measles is thought to be the world’s most contagious disease; it can linger in the air for hours or drift through vents to infect people in other rooms. In some studies of outbreaks in crowded military barracks and student dormitories, it has kept transmitting until more than 95 percent of all residents are infected.
Interviews with epidemiologists regarding the degree of herd immunity needed to defeat the coronavirus produced a range of estimates, some of which were in line with Dr. Fauci’s. They also came with a warning: All answers are merely “guesstimates.”
