A Dangerous Libertarian Strategy for Herd Immunity
The Great Barrington Declaration strikes the wrong tone and stresses the wrong points.
Sign in window, Stockholm, March 2020: “Closed until herd immunity is reached.”
Photographer: Mikael Sjoberg/Bloomberg
It would be bad enough if the Great Barrington Declaration, an eight-paragraph manifesto that is shaping White House policy on Covid-19, was simply misguided. But the statement, which now has more than 9,000 signatories, represents a potentially dangerous way of thinking — about not only pandemics but also human nature.
Debate over the declaration has centered on the concept of “herd immunity,” but that discussion has become so emotional that it is better to focus first on the concrete. The declaration stresses the notion of protecting the vulnerable, such as the elderly, and giving everyone else maximum possible freedom. That sounds good, but the declaration fails to deliver on the details.