Emails show Trump appointee pushed for herd immunity: 'We want them infected'

Recent Health and Human Services Department science adviser Paul Alexander, a Trump appointee, repeatedly pushed for health officials to adopt a herd immunity strategy, meaning millions of Americans would be deliberately exposed to COVID-19 in the hopes the virus would spread through them and then die off, Politico reports.

The House Oversight Committee's select subcommittee on coronavirus gave Politico internal HHS emails showing that on July 3, Alexander said about COVID-19, "If it is causing more cases in young, my word is who cares ... as long as we make sensible decisions, and protect the elderely [sic] and nursing homes, we must go on with life ... who cares if we test more and get more positive results."

Alexander was a top deputy to another Trump appointee, HHS assistant secretary for public affairs Michael Caputo. In a July 4 memo, Alexander told Caputo and six other officials "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. 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."

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The emails show that Caputo asked Alexander — who wanted colleges to stay open so the virus could spread quickly on campuses — to research the idea of herd immunity, Politico reports. Public health experts have discouraged the herd immunity approach, saying it puts millions of people unnecessarily at risk of experiencing long-term health problems or death.

The Trump administration has said herd immunity never shaped the White House's approach to the pandemic, but Kyle McGowan, a former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief of staff appointed by Trump, told Politico it was "understood" that Alexander "spoke for Michael Caputo, who spoke for the White House. That's how they wanted it to be perceived." He also said Alexander, who left HHS in September, "absolutely put pressure on the CDC on different guidance documents," and wanted to change the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports "that were already posted, which is just outrageous." Read more at Politico.