Medical experts pen letter opposing Senate majority leader’s stance on herd immunity - MLive.com

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A group of national health experts penned a letter to Michigan’s Senate majority leader in response to his recent comments related to coronavirus and the concept of herd immunity.

Last week, Mike Shirkey, R-Clark Lake, said he thinks the state has significantly delayed the spread of COVID-19 and can begin putting trust back into residents to keep themselves and their workplaces safe.

“Nobody should be misled here or of the opinion that you can keep it from spreading - it’s going to spread, so we just do the best we can,” Shirkey said. “I’m also a big believer that there’s an element of herd immunity that needs to take place.”

In Monday’s letter, five leaders in the medical field called on Shirkey to clarify his comments and for the Michigan Senate to convene a hearing of experts to share current evidence about what can be done to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and save lives.

“There is a mistaken view held by some that the solution to the pandemic is to wait for enough people to fall ill that the spread of the virus naturally slows down,” reads a portion of the letter. "One problem with this approach is that many people will need to fall ill before this level of herd immunity can be achieved.

The letter goes on to explain that as many as 6.5 million more Michiganders would need to contract COVID-19, and more than 30,000 more would likely die before the state were to reach herd immunity.

As of Saturday, Oct. 10, Michigan has 134,656 known cases of COVID-19 and 6,891 known deaths.

“A much better alternative would be to control the spread of the coronavirus through policies based on evidence, followed by broad use of a safe and effective vaccine when available,” the experts wrote. “We ask that you clarify your remarks about herd immunity to avoid leaving the impression that a leader of your stature is supporting greater spread of coronavirus as public policy.”

Related: Michigan needs ‘an element of herd immunity’ to recover from coronavirus, Senate leader says

The letter, sent to Shirkey on Monday, Oct. 12, was signed by:

• Joshua Sharfstein, professor of the practice in health police and management at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health;
• Thomas File Jr., president of the Infectious Disease Society of America;
• Tom Frieden, president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, and the former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;
• Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health;
• Carlos Del Rio, distinguished professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases at the Emory University School of Medicine.

Herd immunity is the threshold in which enough members of a community have gained enough immunity to a virus that it can no longer spread, and the chain of transmission is broken. Health experts say the process must be slow in order to prevent overwhelming local health systems and avoid preventable deaths, and a vaccine would significantly help that process.

“We certainly agree that the coronavirus will not disappear on its own,” the experts wrote. “However, how much the virus spreads is not a matter of fate; it is very much up to us. There is strong evidence of specific steps that individuals can take in their own lives to reduce the chance of coronavirus infection for themselves and others. There is also strong evidence of steps that the states can take through policy to protect state residents from serious illness and death and contribute to a successful rebound of the economy.”

Related: Herd immunity without a coronavirus vaccine would ‘do a lot of collateral damage’

The medical field leaders recommend washing your hands, wearing a mask and keeping at least 6 feet of distance from others. They said states can take steps like closing bars and limiting large indoor gatherings because those settings pose a high risk of contagion.

Monday’s letter cited comments Shirkey made to MLive last last week following a rally protesting strict COVID-19 restrictions. Shirkey said he doesn’t “believe we need to continue to have the oppressive mandates that we’ve had.”

In their letter, the medical experts cited -- and linked to -- recent studies that found mandated mask-wearing to be helpful in reducing viral spread, and states that reopened restaurants before a mask mandate experienced 10 times the number of excess cases compared to those with mandates in place prior to reopening.

Health experts behind the letter noted that Michigan has been “a national leader in using evidence to guide its response, account for a relatively low rate of infection for much of the late spring and summer.”

For months, public health officials have warned against the dangers of trying to force herd immunity to occur all at once. Ingham County Health Officer Linda Vail said health systems would be overwhelmed and while a lot of people would get mildly ill, many others “would end up dying who didn’t need to die.”

Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist for the World Health Organization, also released a video on the WHO website stating that reaching herd immunity naturally, without a vaccine, would “take a long time” and would “do a lot of collateral damage.”

For the community to reach herd immunity for coronavirus, infectious disease experts estimate that 60-80% of the population would need to gain immunity against the virus, either through infection of vaccination.

“Since we do not know whether immunity is long-lasting, nor do we know the long-term effects of COVID-19, Michigan does not support allowing 80% of Michiganders being infected with this novel virus,” Lynn Sutfin, spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, said last month.

The full letter, uploaded by the governor’s office, is available online, here.

Read more on MLive:

Clare Carr was a healthy 32-year-old when she caught COVID; 4 cardiac arrests later, life isn’t the same.

Monday, Oct. 12, coronavirus data by Michigan county: 7 red counties and 25 orange

Will Michiganders see federal stimulus money before the election?

Officials ask for community’s help in getting kids back to in-person classes in Washtenaw County

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Medical experts pen letter opposing Senate majority leader’s stance on herd immunity - MLive.com
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