As President Donald Trump embarks to a Wednesday campaign rally in Des Moines, Iowa, a
report by the New York Times found that the White House is welcoming a declaration by a group of epidemiologists that calls for young people to re-enter society to stimulate "herd immunity."
Herd immunity is when a disease stops spreading because the majority of the population has had it.
The New York Times reported that two senior administration officials cited The Great Barrington Declaration, which calls for schools and universities to reopen, "young low-risk adults" to work normally and restaurants to reopen – a stance that has largely been condemned by most public health officials, who have called it "scientifically and ethically problematic."
The declaration came out of a meeting from the libertarian-leaning American Institute for Economic Research and its website says it has more than 9,000 signatures, though most names are not public.
"Herd immunity is achieved by protecting people from a virus, not by exposing them to it," WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said Monday, before the report dropped."