Why it matters when Team Trump listens to herd-immunity advocates
Not everyone gets an audience with cabinet secretaries. So when the head of the Department of Health and Human Services sits down with herd-immunity advocates, during a pandemic, it’s worth asking why.
The Trump administration’s health chief met Monday with a trio of scientists who back the controversial theory that the United States can quickly and safely achieve widespread immunity to the coronavirus by allowing it to spread unfettered among healthy people. The meeting with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, which also included Trump adviser Scott Atlas, is the latest example of administration officials — including the president himself — seeking out scientists whose contrarian views justify the government’s handling of a pandemic that has killed 210,000 people and infected nearly 7.5 million so far in the U.S.
As the Politico report noted, the discussion was behind closed doors, but after the meeting, Azar published a tweet that