Thousands of scientists sign declaration that COVID-19 lockdowns have “devastating” impact

(Worthy News) – Around 15,000 scientists and doctors from around the world, and both sides of the political aisle, have now signed a document stating that coronavirus lockdown measures are having a “devastating” effect on public health, the Washington Times reports. Initiated by doctors from Harvard, Stanford, and Oxford University, the Great Barrington Declaration was published on Tuesday. Doctors and scientists have continued to sign up for it since then.

The signatories assert in the declaration: “As infectious disease epidemiologists and public health scientists, we have grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies…Coming from both the left and right and around the world, we have devoted our careers to protecting people,” the declaration says.

According to the signatories, current lockdown measures are “producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health.” These effects, the signatories say, include “lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings, and deteriorating mental health—leading to greater excess mortality in years to come.”

Instead of lockdowns, the Declaration recommends a policy called “Focused Protection.” Under this approach, people would be allowed live normal lives “to build up immunity through natural infection.” At the same time, improved safety measures would be put in place to protect the elderly and others who are more vulnerable to infection and death from COVID-19, the Washington Examiner reports.

The lead signatories to the Declaration Harvard professor of medicine Dr. Martin Kulldorf, Oxford epidemiologist Dr. Sunetra Gupta, and Stanford Medical School professor Dr. Jay Bhattacharya. By Thursday afternoon, the declaration had been signed by almost 5,000 medical and public-health scientists and almost 10,000 medical practitioners, the Washington Examiner reports.

Latest Worthy News