Amid panic over a rise in coronavirus cases that corresponds with an increase in testing, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis held a virtual roundtable discussion Thursday with a professor from Harvard and two from Stanford who contend lockdowns only make the pandemic worse.
Dr. Martin Kulldorff, a medical professor at Harvard University, condemned the lockdown of the healthy, arguing for an "age-targeted strategy."
He insisted universities can hold in-person classes "almost normally" with very little risk, and there's no need for testing on campus.
DeSantis asked the professor if locking down "society as a whole" actually could increase risk to the elderly population, noting the CDC indicates a survival rate of 99.997% for ages 0-19, 99.98% for 20-49, 99;95% for 50-69 and 94.6% for over 70.
Kulldorf said yes, contending that a total lockdown extends the time it takes to reach herd immunity.
"What helps the elderly is if the young take this very minimal risk and live normal life until there is herd immunity, and then when we have herd immunity, the older people can also live more normal lives," he said.
The effectiveness of mask and social distancing mandates, testing and the role of herd immunity in stopping the spread also was discussed by two Stanford professors, medical professor Dr. Jayanta Bhattacharya and structural biology professor Michael Levitt.
Kulldorff has argued that schools could reopen without enforcing mask-wearing, pointing out that in Sweden they remained open during the pandemic without masks.
Bhattacharya, who took part in an antibody study that concluded the number of COVID-19 infections is significantly higher than the estimates, said another lockdown in Florida "would be disastrous."
"At this point, we know that the benefits of a lockdown are small," he said.
In fact, the White House and state and local governments back in March and April emphasized a strategy of "flattening the curve" or "slowing the spread." That was assumed to mean spreading out the cases over time -- not reducing them -- so that the health care system would not be overwhelmed.
Bhattacharya emphasized the sharp difference in mortality rate for younger people, pointing out it's lower than the seasonal flu.
DeSantis asked the professors whether they think COVID-19 "represents a significant threat in terms of overwhelming hospitals in the United States."
All three said no.
"We're in the minority worldwide. People are still locking down and engaging in behavior which is likely to be detrimental in the long run," said Levitt, a recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
See the roundtable:
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