Elusive herd immunity likely won t stop COVID-19 in the US but vaccines can control it, experts say Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
For almost a year, Americans have been looking forward to herd immunity, when enough people are protected through vaccination or past infection to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Once there, public officials have said, masks won t be necessary and hugging and handshakes – not to mention gyms, bars and indoor dining – can return.
But even as more than half of Americans have received at least one dose of vaccine and many others are protected by recent infections, public officials are moving away from the idea of reaching some magic number.
Europe’s drug regulator ruled today that a warning about unusual blood clots with low blood platelets should be added to the product information for Johnson and Johnson s vaccine – but concluded that the vaccine s benefits outweigh the risk.
The European Medicines Agency found a possible link between the one-dose vaccine and eight reports of the blood clots, including one fatality. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week asked states to temporarily pause using J&J’s vaccine “out of an abundance of caution. More than 7 million doses have been 6.8 million doses have been administered.
The decision comes as world leaders and public health experts struggle to curb vaccine hesitancy.
After initially aiming for the kind of protection provided by the measles vaccine, officials are now focused on containment similar to the flu: acknowledging there will be regular outbreaks but hoping to limit them as much as possible.
Americans can go through their entire lives without worrying about getting the measles because of a long-lasting effective vaccine given to more than 90% of children. Although small pockets of infection occur when vaccination rates drop, even people who can t get the vaccine or are immunocompromised remain mostly protected.
With COVID-19, where vaccines are effective but won t last a lifetime, vaccine hesitancy makes that kind of widespread protection unlikely, experts say.
Herd Immunity A Fleeting Goal As Experts Push For COVID Control
04/20/21 AT 1:43 PM
The COVID-19 vaccine is now available to every adult in the U.S., but experts say the long-coveted goal of herd immunity isn’t realistic. Facing pressure from impatient lawmakers, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation s top infectious disease expert, said that the country should focus on vaccinating as many people as possible rather than chase a return to pre-pandemic normalcy.
There are two main obstacles to achieving herd immunity. The first is technical: The COVID-19 vaccine isn’t designed to last a lifetime, making eradication or near-total suppression of the disease much more difficult than, say, measles.
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Lotta polls on this topic are suddenly floating around. Last week one survey found that confidence in J&J’s product plummeted after the FDA temporarily advised against administering the shot, but another found that 58 percent had more confidence in COVID vaccines, generally speaking, after the pause than they did before.
Which seems counterintuitive at first blush but really isn’t. Obviously any problem identified with J&J specifically will shake public trust in that vaccine. But the fact that the FDA showed its cards, admitted the blood-clot evidence, and took the precaution of suspending J&J shots might logically have boosted public trust in the overall approval process. “They’re being transparent,” a person might say to himself. “And if they’re willing to pause J&J, the fact that Pfizer and Moderna haven’t been paused must mean they’re not finding any weird side effects from those vaccines after tens of millions of doses have been administered.”