'Another word for mass murder': CNN doctor buries Trump for backing 'herd immunity' plan

A former Harvard Medical School professor on Wednesday issued a scathing denunciation of President Donald Trump for explicitly backing a "herd immunity" strategy for handling the novel coronavirus.

William Haseltine, a scientist best known for his groundbreaking research on HIV/AIDs, told CNN's Alisyn Camerota that Trump's White House is now explicitly telling Americans to get the novel coronavirus in order to hasten the end of the pandemic.

"Herd immunity is another word for mass murder," he said. "That is exactly what it is. If you allow this virus to spread, as they are advocating, we are looking at to 2 to 6 million Americans dead, not just this year, but every year. The reason for that is that there is no such thing as herd immunity. These viruses, coronaviruses, come back year after year and infect the very same people."

Haseltine then argued that the only way to get through this pandemic is to slow the spread of the disease and getting it under control.

"This is an unmitigated disaster for our country, to have people at the highest levels of our government countermanding our best public health officials," he said. "We know this epidemic can be put under control. Other countries have done it -- we are doing the opposite."

Watch the video below.