DeSantis brings White House ‘herd immunity’ supporter to back reopening schools, easing COVID-19 rules

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday again pushed his policies of reopening schools and relaxing other efforts meant to combat the coronavirus, but this time with the backing of a key White House aide who has said he wants to reach “herd immunity” through minimum restrictions and an end to lockdowns.

Scott Atlas, former chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University and a fellow of the conservative Hoover Institution, joined the White House on its coronavirus response task force in August. He has no background in epidemiology and has previously encouraged policymakers to aim for such immunity by allowing asymptomatic carriers to infect non-high-risk people while protecting the elderly and those with underlying conditions.

“Infected people without severe illness are the immediately available vehicle for establishing widespread immunity,” Atlas wrote in an op-ed in The Hill newspaper in May. “By transmitting the virus to others in the low-risk group who then generate antibodies, they block the network of pathways toward the most vulnerable people, ultimately ending the threat.”

Most public health experts disagree with that advice, and most countries that have controlled the spread of the disease have done so with restrictive lockdowns adhered to by most of their populations.

He joined DeSantis for a tour of Florida, a crucial swing state in the upcoming election highly coveted by both President Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden. At a later stop in The Villages, Atlas said achieving herd immunity was not a tactic he has discussed in the White House.

Cases of COVID-19 have been trending downward since hitting a peak in July. There were 1,885 new cases reported Monday – a positivity rate of 5.5% – and 68 new deaths. There are 3,735 people hospitalized with the disease, down from the peak of 9,385 in late July.

Overall, there have been 623,471 cases and 11,331 deaths in Florida, according to state data.

In Tallahassee, Atlas stressed that only symptomatic people with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, should be tested.

“The metric number of cases is not the most important thing. The metric that we have to look at is the impact of the cases, and that means hospitalizations and deaths and of course the serious illness part of the equation,” Atlas said during a discussion at the Capitol. “When you lockdown and quarantine people who are healthy but happen to be testing positive you are creating enormous harms; to them, to their families.”

The Centers for Disease Control changed its guidelines earlier this month to say healthy people exposed to the virus don’t need to be tested if they don’t exhibit symptoms.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, later said he had concerns about the change because it could lessen the importance of asymptomatic people to the spread of the disease. The Infectious Disease Society of America released a letter Wednesday condemning the change in the guidelines as well.

But Atlas’ view is more in line with what Trump and DeSantis have urged – a loosening of restrictions, while protecting the elderly and those with underlying conditions, groups more likely to die if they become infected, to allow the economy the rebound more quickly.

“We will never do any of these lockdowns again,” DeSantis said at the stop in The Villages.

DeSantis and Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran also highlighted efforts to reopen all schools for in-person instruction for parents who choose to send their children to the classroom.

“Parental choice works,” Corcoran said. “We know that we can provide that education whether its face to face or whether it’s distance learning … and we can do it in a safe manner.

grohrer@orlandosentinel.com