Trump appointee pushed COVID-19 herd immunity strategy

A former Trump appointee repeatedly urged officials at the Department of Health and Human Services to deliberately allow tens of millions of Americans to become infected with coronavirus.

According to the digital publication Politico, then-science adviser Paul Alexander was promoting a widely discredited approach of herd immunity through natural infection.  In one e-mail to top health officials last July, Alexander wrote: “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.”

The "herd immunity" approach has been condemned by the World Health Organization as highly unethical, with disease experts saying it could result in the deaths of millions of people.