Reaching herd immunity is unlikely in the U.S., experts now believe
Apoorva Mandavilli, New York Times
May 2, 2021
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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.
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.
Experts now believe reaching herd immunity is unlikely in the U S boston.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from boston.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Story highlights
Continued immunizations, especially for people at highest risk because of age, exposure or health status, will be crucial to limiting the severity of outbreaks, if not their frequency, experts believe
Early in the pandemic, when vaccines for the coronavirus were still just a glimmer on the horizon, the term âherd immunityâ 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.
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 â at least not in the foreseeable future, and perhaps not ever.
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Health experts said that reaching herd immunity against Covid-19 is unlikely to take place anytime soon, due to hesitancy surrounding vaccines and the spread of new virus variants.
“The virus is unlikely to go away,” Rustom Antia, an evolutionary biologist at Emory University in Atlanta, told
The New York Times. “But we want to do all we can to check that it’s likely to become a mild infection.”
Anthony Fauci, the top medical adviser in President Joe Biden s administration, previously said that around 80% of people in the U.S. need to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity. Fauci is now stressing that herd immunity shouldn’t be used “in the classic sense.”
Reaching herd immunity is unlikely in the U S , experts now believe sltrib.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sltrib.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.