Dr. Dan Erickson, who owns several urgent care facilities throughout California and is a specialist in emergency medicine, warned of the collateral damage resulting from the coronavirus outbreak and the stay at home orders, which, he said, only elongates the curve and decreases immune systems, and isnt a good plan and his early warnings on the issue, he said, were silenced.

Erickson made the comments during a Facebook Live broadcast on Thursday night with House Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Andy Biggs, R-AZ, and Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser.

As Im weighing both the collateral damage and the virus, itself damage and saying I think the collateral damage in the state of California far outweighs the actual virus. Californias at about 1,800 deaths today and we have about 40 million people, Dr. Erickson said. Every death is of course terrible, but, again, the influenza also in 2017-2018 had about 60,000 deaths. So some of the early models we saw were predicting 2 million and that didnt exactly occur.

The early decision to keep the country at home, Erickson said, despite not knowing if it was the best decision or not. Initially the rate of diagnosis at his clinic was 6.5 percent, and, after testing 5,213 patients during a two-month period. Erickson then decided to hold a press conference to be transparent after he had tested 50-60 percent of the population in Kern County. The video, which was posted to Youtube, was promptly removed from the platform for what the tech-giant says violates community guidelines.

One model that Erickson said hes been persistently monitoring is in Sweden, where the countrys top epidemiologists, including Anders Tegnell, have taken a different approach to the virus than the U.S. by keeping the economy open and allowing life to stay as normal as possible, which he says is successful and should be looked at as a possible way for our country to reopen. The model, although not initially intended by Swedens epidemiologists, may have also brought about a certain herd immunity to the virus in its population.

The decision to lock down the U.S. was because it was something to do and we were afraid when we watched China, he said. But theres data for handwashing, we have great data for handwashing, but I think we took on a program that didnt have a lot of science to it, I tried it and I toed the line for two months. And then after I had collected all my data, I looked at it, I said, you know, I think theres a better approach.'

Because many states have implemented pauses on elective surgeries, hospitals are being forced to close and/or furlough workers. He also said that the stay at home orders have presented significant tolls on patients mental health. In order to navigate the debate on reopening the country, Erickson advocated for a formation of a physicians COVID alliance for doctors treating patients with the virus on a daily basis to bring what theyre seeing with their own eyes to the publics attention.

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Urgent Care Doctor Silenced By Youtube Says His First Amendment Rights Have Been Attacked - Sara A. Carter