WHO’s Nabarro: Stop Addiction to Lockdowns—They Make ‘Poor People an Awful Lot Poorer’

Oct. 12, 2020 (EIRNS)—David Nabarro, a Special Envoy on COVID-19 for WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is making a forceful case for what he calls “The Middle Path”: “Some commentators say ‘more restrictions needed now.’ Others say ‘let the virus run wild and build up herd immunity.’ A middle path is needed.... Too many restrictions damage people’s livelihoods and provoke resentment. ‘Virus run wild’ will lead to lots of deaths as well as debilitating long COVID among younger people.” This involves, first, using ‘all precautions all the time’—distancing, masking, washing hands, self-isolating when ill, and shielding the most vulnerable. Second, there must be investment in public health services for the test-trace-isolate-protect capacity, which must include mass testing capacity. This is to deal with surges. Finally, international cooperation is vital.... Lockdowns in one country interrupt trade and commerce around the world.... Lockdowns are making poor people an awful lot poorer.’ ”

Interviewed by The Spectator on Oct. 8, Nabarro was emphatic that world leaders must stop abusing the lockdown approach.

“The only time we believe a lockdown is justified is to buy you time to reorganize, regroup, rebalance your resources, protect your health workers who are exhausted, but by and large, we’d rather not do it.... Look what’s happened to smallholder farmers all over the world because their markets have got dented. Look what’s happening to poverty levels. It seems that we may well have a doubling of world poverty by next year. Seems that we may well have at least a doubling of child malnutrition because children are not getting meals at school and their parents, in poor families, are not able to afford it. This is a terrible, ghastly global catastrophe actually. And so we really do appeal to all world leaders: Stop using lockdown as your primary control method, develop better systems for doing it, work together and learn from each other.”