YouTube removes viral video from epidemiologist who denounced strict lockdown orders

YouTube has removed a viral video from an epidemiologist who denounced the government's response to coronavirus, declaring that developing herd immunity, not imposing strict lockdowns, is the correct response to the coronavirus.

According to the New York Post, YouTube removed a video of Dr. Knut Wittkowski, the former head of biostatistics, epidemiology and research design at Rockefeller University, in which he denounced strict lockdown measures.

"With all respiratory diseases, the only thing that stops the disease is herd immunity. About 80% of the people need to have had contact with the virus, and the majority of them won't even have recognized that they were infected," Wittkowski says in the video.

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Wittkowski, 65, is a ferocious critic of the nation's current steps to fight the coronavirus. He has derided social distancing, saying it only prolongs the virus' existence and has attacked the current lockdown as mostly unnecessary.

Wittkowski, who holds two doctorates in computer science and medical biometry, believes the coronavirus should be allowed to achieve "herd immunity," and that short of a vaccine the pandemic will only end after it has sufficiently spread through the population.

The video had amassed more than 1.3 million views before YouTube removed it.

The move is the latest by social media platforms to clamp down on what they call "misinformation," which, in actuality, are ideas that counter official government decrees and opinions handed down by the World Health Organization.

In fact, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki told CNN last month that her platform would immediately remove all content that pushed ideas contrary to the WHO.

However, Wittkowski told the Post that YouTube did not specify why it removed his video.

"They don't tell you. They just say it violates our community standards. There's no explanation for what those standards are or what standards it violated," Wittkowski said.

YouTube also removed another viral video last month — one that amassed nearly 5.5 million views — on two California doctors who said data they collected indicated stay-at-home lockdowns were not in the best interest of the public.