Rep. Thomas Massie extended his gratitude to people who have contracted the coronavirus, arguing that their exposure to the disease will help make society less vulnerable to its effects.
Writing on Twitter Thursday, the Kentucky Republican said that every person who gets exposed to the disease is indirectly bringing the population closer to the end of the pandemic because larger groups build up immunity to the virus.
“Instead of trying to shame those who have contracted the virus, why not thank them for shouldering the burden of getting us one step closer to herd immunity and the end of this pandemic?” Massie tweeted.
Instead of trying to shame those who have contracted the virus, why not thank them for shouldering the burden of getting us one step closer to herd immunity and the end of this pandemic?
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) October 8, 2020
Herd immunity, which has been adopted by Sweden, is indirect protection from infectious diseases built through allowing the virus to eat its way through the majority of citizens in a society. Epidemiologists calculate that once the herd-immunity threshold has been breached, the introduction of the virus to the population will not cause an outbreak.
Massie has mentioned herd immunity before on Twitter, writing in July that the idea of “flattening the curve” was about “avoiding overwhelming medical resources until herd immunity is reached.”
Some scientists have argued against the practice of herd immunity, stressing that it does not protect the most vulnerable groups of the society, such as the elderly and the immunocompromised.
The governments of most Western societies have embraced this argument, claiming that without a vaccination, the disease could infect as much as 90% of the population and that a regiment of wearing masks and social distancing is the best protection against the disease at the moment.
But officials in Sweden have suggested that many of the rules and restrictions put in place by other countries since the pandemic began are completely unnecessary. They have questioned the validity of claims that masks are essential to fighting the disease and refused to close businesses and schools in the country even as many European neighbors did just that over the past eight months.
Even without the lockdown restrictions, Swedes have remained in their homes for the most part, according to surveys and mobile data from residents of the country. But politicians in the country have yet to “shut down” the economy, instead choosing to sacrifice the short-term health of their society for the potential payoff that the people of Sweden could build up immunity to the disease through increased exposure.
In March, United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson reportedly considered herd immunity but was widely criticized for the relaxed approach and eventually adopted tighter restrictions to slow the spread of the disease.
