Can Herd Immunity Really Help Fight COVID-19?
As the world continues to deal with COVID-19, herd immunity has been referred to by many as the “key to reopening.” Herd immunity occurs when enough of a population becomes immune to a disease, which decreases its ability to spread.
This is achieved through either mass vaccinations or through mass exposure to the virus.
Both result in recovered individuals developing antibodies.
A vaccine for COVID-19 will likely be unavailable for quite some time, meaning purposeful exposure to the virus is the only current route to achieving herd immunity.
Here are a few reasons why pushing for herd immunity may not be the best course of action right now, according to experts.
At this point, it is not confirmed whether those who recover from COVID-19 actually build an immunity or how long that immunity lasts.
Immunity to the 2003 SARS virus lasted up to two years, while immunity to the common cold only lasts a few months.
As pointed out by Anna Bershteyn of NYU Langone Health, the science surrounding COVID-19 is "just not far enough along for us to know what it takes to actually be immune." The percentage of the population that needs to be immune in order to achieve herd immunity is also unknown.
Jeremy Rossman of the University of Kent estimates we’ll need “between 60-70 percent of the population to be immune” to COVID-19, but that number could easily change and have major consequences.
Jeremy Rossman, via Huffpost Attempting to achieve herd immunity without a vaccine would result in millions of cases, most likely overwhelming health systems. According to Rossman, an influx of cases at that level would mean at least one million total deaths in the U.S.
