Pandemic Endgame: Redefining the Herd Immunity Goal
So much for vaccines enabling the U.S. to achieve the cherished goal of herd immunity for COVID-19. It is becoming increasingly clear to many public health experts that likely will not happen, according to a New York Times global health reporter. May 4, 2021, 12pm PDT | Irvin Dawid Share Early in the pandemic, when vaccines for the coronavirus were still just a glimmer on the horizon, the term herd immunity came to signify the endgame: the point when enough Americans would be protected from the virus so we could be rid of the pathogen and reclaim our lives, writes Apoorva Mandavilli, a reporter for The New York Times who focuses on science and global health, on May 3.
Robyn PennacchiaMay 03, 2021 11:37 AM DOD experts explain: The science behind the COVID-19 vaccines .
After nearly a year of hopes and dreams of OK, we ll get through this and then we ll get a vaccine and then herd immunity will happen and things will be okay again, it now turns out that, according to public health experts, the United States is probably not going to achieve herd immunity any time soon, perhaps even ever.
Why? Well, there are a few reasons. As fast as we got the vaccine out, it wasn t quite fast enough. Variants had the chance to develop that were more contagious and more severe than the original virus. And while 50 percent of US adults have had at least the first dose of the vaccine, only 70 percent say they definitely plan on going all the way, and that s just not enough. Additionally, the United States and other rich countries worked out their own individual deals with pharmaceutical companies instead of working out a collective deal with the World He
Published: May 04, 2021 By Kate Goodwin
In 2020, “herd immunity” was the mythical goal set forth in the hearts and minds of a struggling population, waiting on a vaccine to return us to normal. Now experts are saying herd immunity with COVID-19 may well be
The threshold for herd immunity has generally been placed at around 60-70% of any population gaining immunity to an infectious disease, whether through vaccination or past exposure. Now in our second year of dealing with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, scientists aren’t so confident that threshold can ever be truly reached, turning this pandemic into an endemic, more like the influenza virus that mutates and returns seasonally in waves. A popular
WASHINGTON (NYTIMES) - Early in the pandemic, when vaccines for the coronavirus were still just a glimmer on the horizon, the term herd immunity came to signify the endgame: the point when enough Americans would be protected from the virus so people could be rid of the pathogen and reclaim their lives.
Now, more than half of adults in the United States have been inoculated with at least one dose of a vaccine. But daily vaccination rates are slipping, and there is widespread consensus among scientists and public health experts that the herd immunity threshold is not attainable - at least not in the foreseeable future, and perhaps not ever.