From 1st to 4th October, 2020, the American Institute for Economic Research hosted a remarkable meeting of top epidemiologists, economists and journalists, to discuss the global emergency created by the unprecedented use of state compulsion in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. The result is The Great Barrington Declaration, which urges a “Focused Protection” strategy.

As infectious disease epidemiologists and public health scientists we have grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies, and recommend an approach we call Focused Protection.

The Great Barrington Declaration

The declaration was written by Dr. Jay Bhattacharya (Professor of Medicine at Stanford University), Dr. Sunetra Gupta (Oxford University) and Dr. Martin Kulldorff (Harvard University).

Whilst the project only started earlier this month (October 2020), it has already gained the support of:

• 587,814 citizens
• 11,359 medical and public health scientists
• 32,188 medical practitioners

Fake signatures are claimed to be less than 1% of the total, with signatures of scientists being made public after verification and approval.

More About The Great Barrington Declaration

The Declaration was written from a global public health and humanitarian perspective, with special concerns about how the current COVID-19 strategies are forcing our children, the working class and the poor to carry the heaviest burden.

The response to the pandemic in many countries around the world, focused on lockdowns, contact tracing and isolation, imposes enormous unnecessary health costs on people.

In the long run, it will lead to higher COVID and non-COVID mortality than the focused protection plan we call for in the Declaration.