Harvard Law School professor Laurence Tribe faced blowback on social media Friday after advocating that a large portion of the population will “need to be exposed” and die from coronavirus in order to put an end to the crisis.

“Because it’s too late to contain COVID-19, there’s only one possible ending to the story: We must collectively develop immunity to the disease," Tribe, a periodic guest on MSNBC and CNN, wrote on Twitter. “In lieu of a vaccine, that means most of us will need to be exposed to the virus. Some unknowably large number of us will therefore die."

He later deleted the tweet, but not before criticism quickly came pouring in on social media.

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I’ve been telling you all for a few years that Larry Tribe frequently engages in conspiracy theories but partisanship would lead me to get ratio’d.



Now do you get it?



Your anger towards Trump shouldn’t lead you to seek out the opinions of people who are detached from reality. pic.twitter.com/PU7u5WMk8p — Yashar Ali (@yashar) April 17, 2020

Maybe stick to tweeting about the law? — Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) April 17, 2020

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Good lord, did the coronavirus hack your account? Medical experts (as opposed to constitutional law profs) say <10% of those infected are known to have developed antibodies. Herd immunity needs >50%. — Osha Davidson (@OshaDavidson) April 17, 2020

You go first Larry — Rob (@robrousseau) April 17, 2020

We still don’t know if we can build immunity against COVID19. This is incredibly irresponsible and a stupid thing to suggest. Do you really not understand how many people that would be? If you’re bored, get off twitter and watch a movie. — Nada Bakos (@nadabakos) April 17, 2020

It appears Professor @tribelaw quietly and without commented deleted his tweet suggesting that we deliberately expose ourselves to the virus to develop herd immunity (without proclaiming that he would lead the way): pic.twitter.com/O0nSChvus8 — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 17, 2020

Tribe has taught at Harvard Law School since 1968 and was a mentor to former President Obama when he was a student there in the late '80s and early '90s.