Natural herd immunity is a myth.
Articles on Herd immunity
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Researchers can’t agree on topics such face mask, immunity and number of infections. Here’s why.
Despite a lighter lockdown, Sweden hasn’t avoided the damaging economic disruption experienced elsewhere.
We’ll achieve herd immunity when 60% of the population is immune to COVID. No, wait, make it 70%. Or is it 80%?
The purveyors of these myths, including politicians who have been soft peddling the impact of the coronavirus, aren’t doing the country any favors.
There’s no scientific definition for a wave of disease – and no evidence that the original onslaught of coronavirus in the US has receded much at all.
There is speculation about whether a population can achieve some sort of immunity to the virus with as little as 20% infected.
Without a vaccine, the cost of reaching herd immunity during a pandemic is counted in lives lost, and it won’t quickly stop the virus’s spread.
It usually takes 10 years for a new vaccine to complete clinical trials, but we’ve been promised a COVID-19 vaccine in 12 to 18 months. Even if such fast-tracked development is possible, is it wise?
The virus that caused the original Sars no longer haunts us, but the characteristics of today’s coronavirus mean it’s unlikely to disappear in the same way.
Even Sweden is still a long way off from herd immunity.
Paul Kelly on the second-wave of coronavirus
Michelle Grattan speaks with Deputy Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly about the second-wave of coronavirus.
If the UK relaxes social distancing now, while most of the population is still susceptible, it runs the very real risk of a second wave.
One practical exit strategy from lockdown would be identifying green zones, and progressively joining them together once it is safe to do so.
Starting to feel a little more optimistic? Look away now.
Of the four broad options for coming out of lockdown, a controlled building of ‘herd immunity’ in the population may be our best hope of recovery from the pandemic if a vaccine is not found soon.
Could the 1889-1890 pandemic have been the result of cow coronaviruses jumping to humans?
It’s based on a combination of mathematical modelling, computer simulation and historical data from other pandemics.
Without a coronavirus vaccine, a herd immunity strategy would simply lead to thousands of unnecessary deaths.
Letting the virus ‘pass through the community’ is not a good public health strategy.
Top contributors
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Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Strathclyde
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Head of School of Population Health and Professor, Infectious Diseases Dynamics and Interventions, UNSW
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Associate Professor of Health Law, Policy and Management, Boston University
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Professor, School of Public Health, University of Sydney
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Distinguished Professor, Professor of Immunology, RMIT University
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Professor of Infectious Disease and Epidemiology, James Cook University
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Senior Lecturer; MD, Victoria University
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Principal Lecturer, Microbiology and Biomedical Science Practice, Fellow of the Institute of Biomedical Science, University of Brighton
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Professor and Director of Doherty Epidemiology, The University of Melbourne
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Postdoctoral Fellow in Virology, University of Colorado Boulder
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Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, University of South Carolina
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Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin University
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Assistant Professor of Philosophy & Disability Studies, Georgetown University
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Associate Professor, Computing & Information Systems; Director, Melbourne Data Analytics Platform, The University of Melbourne
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Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne