Khaldun: Herd Immunity Strategy Without Vaccine ‘Inhumane’

This story courtesy of MIRS, a Lansing-based news and information service.

The state’s chief medical executive said Oct. 19 attacking COVID-19 via the herd immunity strategy without the aid of a vaccine “would be inhumane, irresponsible, and scientifically negligent.”

Dr. Joneigh Khaldun was before the Legislature’s Joint Select Committee on the COVID-19 Pandemic today and addressed the concept of herd immunity in her opening remarks.

She echoed what other medical experts have said in that to achieve herd immunity without the aid of a vaccine, 6 million more people in Michigan would need to be infected and roughly 30,000 more people would die as a result, which she called “unacceptable.”

“Let me also be very clear: natural herd immunity is not a scientifically sound or humane strategy to address COVID-19. Herd immunity, by any way outside of broad distribution of a vaccine, would be inhumane, irresponsible, and scientifically negligent,” she said.

Under questioning from Sen. Curtis Hertel Jr. (D-East Lansing) later in the hearing, Khaldun also said adopting a herd immunity strategy would be a “disaster” for Michigan’s case rate and death rate.

She said there’s a study out there that roughly 9 percent of Michiganders have antibodies for COVID-19, and had said that scientists have estimated that 80 percent of the population would need to be immune to achieve that strategy.

Khaldun was on the virtual witness stand before the committee, which met in person at the Capitol, for roughly an hour-and-a-half.

Among the questions Khaldun received were from Sen. Aric Nesbitt (R-Lawton) who tried to get at Khaldun’s role in advising the Governor on past decisions related to the pandemic.

Khaldun said she advised the Governor on how to slow the spread of disease, and that she didn’t “sign off” on executive orders.

Nesbitt asked why “motors on boats were considered a coronavirus threat.” To that, and on other questions, Khaldun would say, “I always advise on decreasing risk and incrementally reopening the economy.”

Committee Chair Matt Hall (R-Emmet Twp.) asked Khaldun if any decisions had ever been made that she personally disagreed with. She said she knows “they’ve taken my advice seriously but I can’t say specifically that something I advised definitely wasn’t done.”

Khaldun told Hall that when she advises Whitmer, she suggests what might be safer and what carries more risk and has suggested an incremental opening of businesses.

When pressed by Hall on whether she recommended that bars re-open, Khaldun said she’s not the one who makes that decision, and that she generally advises on what is considered riskier, but that she’s not the one who makes the final call on such decisions.

Hall asked about whether other metrics – like the suicide rate, domestic violence incidents, child vaccinations and more – were being tracked alongside the virus numbers.

Khaldun acknowledged child vaccination rates went down, and that mental health-related emergency room visits are down, yet the percentage of those ER visits being mental health have increased.

But Khaldun said at least a few times that “we have to remember that the enemy is the virus . . . the enemy is not the policies.”

Asked specifically if the suicide rate is up, State Epidemiologist Sarah Lyon-Callo said the information to calculate that is not available yet, which Nesbitt had some concern with.

Hall later issued a statement after the hearing today that said “there have been unintended and concerning consequences stemming from the administration’s policies over the past several months – and those have taken a back seat,” and added later that, “prolonged isolation has given way to an increase in depression, substance abuse, and suicide.”