Alabama state Sen. Del Marsh (R), who serves as the Senate’s President Pro Tempore, tried to make the claim on Thursday that the astounding increase in COVID-19 cases rippling across the state is actually a good thing.
The number of hospitalizations in Alabama skyrocketed by 40 percent within 24 hours on Wednesday.
And on Thursday, 2,164 cases emerged in the state, marking its highest single-day caseload thus far.
Yet Marsh told reporters that day that he was “not as concerned” about the staggering caseload, per a video posted by WSFA 12 News reporter Lydia Nusbaum.
“In fact, quite honestly, I want to see more people [test positive] because we start reaching an immunity if more people have it and get through it,” he said.
However, health experts said that trying to combat COVID-19 with a “herd immunity” through natural infection, which would require hundreds of millions of people to catch the virus, is incredibly risky and could in fact worsen the pandemic.
The Mayo Clinic warns that there are “some major problems with relying on community infection,” as there is not any straight forward proof yet that someone who recovers from the virus won’t get infected again.
“Further research is needed to determine the protective effect of antibodies to the virus in those who have been infected,” the clinic states in its information page on herd immunities.
