CREW requests records on Dr. Alexander’s troubling ‘herd immunity’ coronavirus approach

Recent reporting has revealed that former Trump appointee at  Health and Human Services Dr. Paul Alexander continuously urged top officials to “to adopt a ‘herd immunity’ approach to COVD-19 and allow millions of Americans to be infected by the virus.” Among making other shocking statements with no scientific bearing, publicly released emails show that Dr. Alexander wrote to agency officials that “[i]nfants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk…so we use them to develop herd…we want them infected.” 

Dr. Alexander appeared to issue public health guidance based on whatever fiction would win Trump’s favor rather than science-based facts. Dr. Alexander even urged agency officials to modify scientific reports he perceived as damaging to Trump, and “was effective at delaying the [CDC’s] famed Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports and watering down guidance that came from his agency.” The public deserves to know the extent of Dr. Alexander’s political interference with the federal government’s response to COVID-19, a matter that has touched the lives of all Americans.

CREW has requested Dr. Alexander’s HHS emails that refer to any of the statements that he made publicly, including key search terms like “herd” and “Trump.”

Over 300,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus and faulty information like these statements from Dr. Alexander has dangerously eroded the public’s trust in the government’s ability to adequately deal with the disease. This comes amidst revelations that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director and Trump appointee Robert Redfield instructed officials to destroy emails demonstrating political interference in coronavirus communications. Trump appointees have continuously put Trump’s personal and political agenda ahead of science-based evidence. The consequences have been devastating and deadly.