LinkedIn/Getty
Knut Wittkowski
Knut Wittkowski is a controversial epidemiologist who has argued in opposition to lockdowns to take care of the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of he believes the nation wants to achieve “herd immunity.”
In an interview with Spiked on Could 15, 2020, Wittkowski stated,
When the entire thing began, there was one purpose given for the lockdown and that was to forestall hospitals from turning into overloaded. There isn’t a indication that hospitals might ever have develop into overloaded, regardless of what we did. So we might open up once more, and overlook the entire thing. I hope the intervention didn’t have an excessive amount of of an impression as a result of it most certainly made the scenario worse.
Wittkowski additionally argues that COVID-19 isn’t harmful “until you’ve got age-related extreme comorbidities. So if you’re in a nursing residence since you can not stay by your self anymore, then getting contaminated is harmful.” (Virtually 40% of COVID-19 deaths nationwide are concentrated in nursing properties and assisted residing amenities, at the least within the states reporting the information, a non-profit basis’s evaluation discovered. You’ll be able to learn an exploration of that, together with the share of deaths for every state that occurred in such amenities, right here.)
You’ll be able to learn Wittkowski’s full interview with Spike right here.
He advised the outlet that the prices of lockdowns together with rising suicide and home violence charges in addition to individuals not going to hospitals for different illnesses when they need to. (A examine in JAMA Psychiatry did discover that “the potential for opposed outcomes on suicide threat is excessive” as a consequence of actions taken to forestall COVID-19, corresponding to lockdowns. A New York Occasions article reported home violence was rising as a consequence of COVID-19 worldwide. Some cities have reported surging home violence numbers through the pandemic.)
Heavy has requested Wittkowski for an interview by way of his firm web site.
Who’s Knut Wittkowski?
Right here’s what you could know:
1. Rockefeller College Launched a Assertion Distancing Itself From Knut Wittkowski
On April 13, 2020, The Rockefeller College, the place Wittkowski has labored, launched a press release saying, “The opinions which were expressed by Knut Wittkowski, discouraging social distancing in an effort to hasten the event of herd immunity to the novel coronavirus, don’t signify the views of The Rockefeller College, its management, or its school.”
The assertion continued, “Wittkowski was beforehand employed by Rockefeller as a biostatistician. He has by no means held the title of professor at Rockefeller.”
2. YouTube Deleted a Video That includes Wittkowski, Stories Say
The New York Publish describes Wittkowski as previously affiliated with The Rockefeller College and says YouTube prompted earlier controversy by deleting a video of him speaking about coronavirus that was seen greater than 1 million occasions. The article calls Wittkowski a “ferocious critic of the nation’s present steps to struggle the coronavirus” and says he’s proponent of herd immunity as an method to warding off COVID-19.
In line with The Publish, he stated within the deleted video: “With all respiratory ailments, the one factor that stops the illness is herd immunity. About 80% of the individuals must have had contact with the virus, and nearly all of them gained’t even have acknowledged that they had been contaminated.” The Publish reported that Wittkowski is a “German nationwide” who “flouts New York’s coronavirus restrictions, strolling round his Higher East Aspect neighborhood maskless and consuming in underground eating places.”
3. Wittkowski Authored a Analysis Article on COVID-19
Wittkowski authored a March 28, 2020 analysis examine referred to as “The primary three months of the COVID-19 epidemic: Epidemiological proof for 2 separate strains of SARS-CoV-2 viruses spreading and implications for prevention methods.” You’ll find it right here. It’s a preprint, which suggests it hasn’t but been peer reviewed. Click on on assessment PDF to see the complete examine.
This text says:
About one month after the COVID-19 epidemic peaked in Mainland China and SARS-CoV-2 migrated from China westward to Europe after which the U.S., the epidemiological knowledge start to offer essential insights into the dangers related to the illness and the effectiveness of intervention methods. Like different respiratory ailments, together with the 2003 SARS epidemic, the virus stays solely about two months in any given inhabitants, but the height incidence and the lethality can fluctuate
He discovered that the information prompt there have been at the least two strains of COVID-19 on the earth. The examine’s competing curiosity examine says, “Dr. Wittkowski is at present the CEO of ASDERA LLC, an organization discovering novel therapies for advanced ailments from knowledge of genome-wide affiliation research. Certainly one of these therapies might probably be efficient in opposition to virus (together with coronavirus) ailments.”
The examine argues:
Lockdowns may be efficient through the month following the height incidence in infections, when the exponential improve of circumstances ends. Earlier containment of low-risk individuals merely prolongs the time the virus must flow into till the incidence is excessive sufficient to provoke ‘herd immunity.’ Later containment shouldn’t be useful, until to forestall a rebound if containment began too early.
The article provides this background for Wittkowski:
Dr. Wittkowski acquired his PhD in pc science from the College of Stuttgart and his ScD (Habilitation) in Medical Biometry from the Eberhard-Karls-College Tübingen, each Germany. He labored for 15 years with Klaus Dietz, a number one epidemiologist who coined the time period ‘copy quantity,’ on the Epidemiology of HIV earlier than heading for 20 years the Division of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Analysis Design at The Rockefeller College, New York. Dr. Wittkowski is at present the CEO of ASDERA LLC, an organization discovering novel interventions in opposition to advanced (incl. coronavirus) ailments from knowledge of genome-wide affiliation research.
4. Wittkowski’s Background Consists of Analysis Into HIV/AIDS
On LinkedIn, Wittkowski says he’s chief govt officer/founding father of Asdera, LLC in New York. “ASDERA develops and out-licenses IP for novel medication from genetic knowledge. A drug to forestall mutism in autism was out-licensed to Q BioMed (QBIO). Now, ASDERA is in search of companions to commercialize a category of therapies (pat. pending) to enhance autophagy and scale back irritation in age-related situations together with metastatic, neurodegenerative, cardiovascular, and metabolic ailments,” he wrote.
He was at The Rockefeller College in New York within the place of “Head, Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Analysis Design, Middle for Scientific & Translational Science” and was a senior analysis affiliate there, since 1998, in response to his LinkedIn web page. He was additionally a “biometrician” on the similar college.
He’s been co writer on research for issues like “Statistical Functions in Genetics and Molecular Biology.”
Earlier than that he was a advisor for New York Academy of Medication. He was co-author on a analysis article about reporting sexual threat habits for HIV.
He additionally lists being a visitor researcher for the Facilities for Illness Management for six months within the 1990s within the division of HIV/AIDS prevention and he was an assistant professor on the College of Tuebingen for 4 years.
He additionally served as a visiting professor for the College of Waterloo, Division of Statistics and Actuarial Sciences and Columbia College within the Metropolis of New York. He was an affiliate on the HIV Middle for Scientific and Behavioral Research for lower than a yr in 1995, and was co-author of an article that handled “The protecting impact of condoms and nonoxynol-9 in opposition to HIV an infection.”
He was on the College of Tuebingen for 10 years as a postdoctoral analysis affiliate and analysis affiliate. He acquired educating accreditation at that college in medical biometry. He acquired a PhD in pc science from the College of Stuttgart within the 1980s, in response to his LinkedIn web page.
Cindy Lu, director at Biogen, wrote an outdated LinkedIn advice for Wittkowski that reads, “Dr. Wittkowski could be very knowledgable, good and simple to collaborate. All the time perceive your wants and search methods to work the very best for you. A terrific skilled and an incredible man!”
One paper authored by Wittkowski on HIV/AIDS says, “It has been not too long ago advocated that avoiding companions who could also be at excessive threat of carrying HIV gives 5000-fold higher safety in opposition to HIV an infection than utilization of condoms. On this paper, it’s demonstrated that this guideline is basically primarily based on unrealistic assumptions.” See extra of his publications right here.
5. Specialists’ Views on Herd Immunity Range
Heavy reached out to Sciline, which connects journalists with consultants on COVID-19, to ask about different consultants’ views on herd immunity and quarantining, and Sciline despatched one way links to spherical ups of knowledgeable quotes on the subjects.
One Sciline article reads: “What’s herd immunity and what portion of the inhabitants wants COVID-19 antibodies in an effort to obtain it?” (Learn the complete paper right here. It additionally offers with knowledgeable views on antibodies.)
“Herd immunity refers to having sufficient immune people {that a} virus can not unfold quickly and infect massive numbers of individuals. The required threshold for efficient herd immunity is dependent upon the contagiousness of the virus: for instance, measles is extraordinarily contagious, and thus at the least 90% of individuals have to be vaccinated to forestall outbreaks. Specialists have estimated a herd immunity of 60-70% would most likely present profit in opposition to COVID-19. America is a great distance from this; even with 1 million confirmed circumstances, if these examined account for less than 10% of all circumstances, the whole variety of people with demonstrated immunity would nonetheless be lower than 10% of the US inhabitants.”
— John Williams, MD, Professor of Pediatrics, College of Pittsburgh; Director, i4Kids; Chief, Pediatric Infectious Ailments, UPMC Youngsters’s Hospital of Pittsburgh (Posted 5/6/2020)
“Inhabitants immunity—or herd safety—describes the phenomenon of sufficient individuals in a group turning into resistant to a germ in order that when the germ is launched, say from somebody touring from ‘exterior the herd,’ the germ doesn’t take maintain however meets a lifeless finish due to immunity in most people. We have now no manner of figuring out but what number of in a inhabitants need to be immune or partially resistant to the virus to attain some kind of safety, however we do know that as increasingly individuals develop into immune, the variety of particular person individuals which are contaminated for each one case of COVID-19 will go down significantly. Take chickenpox for instance. Think about a category of 4th graders. There are 15 college students within the class, all of whom have been vaccinated for chickenpox. If a brand new pupil involves the college and occurs to have chickenpox, the virus has nowhere to go due to the immunity of the classroom. No outbreak happens, and all is nicely. However what If solely 12 college students have been vaccinated? Now that one authentic case will probably develop into Four circumstances. This is the reason inhabitants immunity is so essential – it’s probably the most surefire solution to cease germs of their tracks.”
— C. Buddy Creech, MD, MPH, Director, Vanderbilt Vaccine Analysis Program, Affiliate Professor, Pediatric Infectious Ailments, Vanderbilt College College of Medication and Medical Middle (5/6/2020)
“This relies, however often greater than 70% of the inhabitants wants antibodies to attain herd immunity.”
— Arturo Casadevall MD, PhD, Chair of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, Johns Hopkins College of Public Well being (5/6/2020)
“We’re attempting to acquire one thing referred to as herd immunity – the idea that there are sufficient individuals in a bunch of individuals which are resistant to a illness. Those that haven’t but had the illness might maintain themselves from getting contaminated as a result of everyone round them has already had it and are not going to be infectious. And so there’s calculations round how that is measured that has to do with the transmission of the illness itself… Typically, for this illness – for COVID-19 – we’d most likely wish to see between 60 to 70% of the inhabitants being immune earlier than we are able to say we’re snug. I feel others could provide you with different numbers, however that’s the overall sense.”
— Nahid Bhadelia, MD, MA, Medical Director, Particular Pathogens Unit, Boston College College of Medication (Posted 5/7/2020)