Emails Show Trump Appointee’s Coronavirus Strategy: ‘We Want Them Infected’

Politico reported Wednesday that a Trump appointee in the Health and Human Services Department wanted millions of Americans to be infected by the coronavirus, which has claimed more than 300,000 lives thus far.

Then-science adviser Paul Alexander pushed for herd immunity, according to emails obtained by the House Oversight Committee.

“There is no other way, we need to establish herd, and it only comes about allowing the non-high risk groups expose themselves to the virus. PERIOD,” Alexander wrote on July 4 to Michael Caputo, Health and Human Services assistant secretary for public affairs, and six other senior officials.

“Infants, 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…” Alexander wrote.

In an email later that month, Alexander followed up on his suggestion.

“[I]t may be that it will be best if we open up and flood the zone and let the kids and young folk get infected” in order to get “natural immunity…natural exposure,” he wrote.

Alexander also claimed colleges should stay open to allow infections to spread. In an email to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield, he complained that “we essentially took off the battlefield the most potent weapon we had…younger healthy people, children, teens, young people who we needed to fastly [sic] infect themselves, spread it around, develop immunity, and help stop the spread.”

The recommendations by Alexander were believed to have been supported by the White House, officials told Politico.