A (slightly) more comprehensible definition of "herd immunity" than usually available in the mass media
New Trump pandemic adviser pushes controversial ‘herd immunity’ strategy, worrying public health officials
By Yasmeen Abutaleb and Josh Dawsey, The Washington Post, August 31, 2020 at 3:56 p.m. EDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/08/31/herd-immunity-covid-19/?hpid=hp_hp-banner-low_virustrump-7am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans
image (not from article) from
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/herd-immunity-protect-us-covid-19/story?id=70801834
Excerpt:
It remains unclear how large a percentage of the population must become infected to achieve “herd immunity,” which is when enough people become immune to a disease that it slows its spread, even among those who have not been infected. That can occur either through mass vaccination efforts, or when enough people in the population become infected with coronavirus and develop antibodies that protect them against future infection.
Estimates have ranged from 20 percent to 70 percent for how much of a population would need to be infected. Soumya Swaminathan, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist, said given the transmissibility of the novel coronavirus, it is likely that about 65 to 70 percent of the population would need to become infected for there to be herd immunity.
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