dropdeadfred, As COVID-19 swept through Italy and other parts of Europe in February and March, most nearby countries instituted strict, or semi-strict, lockdowns. Sweden went a different way. Instead, it embarked upon a strategy of “herd immunity,” hoping that enough healthy people would contract and recover from the virus for life to resume pretty much as normal.
Naturally, this is the model President Trump is now interested in replicating.
The president’s new, trusted adviser on the pandemic is Scott Atlas, a senior fellow at Stanford’s conservative Hoover Institution who endorses a Sweden-style approach for America that would protect specific vulnerable populations, like those in nursing homes, while largely allowing the coronavirus to spread unchecked through other sectors of society. And his philosophy may at least partially explain several shifts in federal policy over the last few weeks.