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

How herd immunity may protect us from COVID-19 - ABC News
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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Full List of Companies That Have Stayed in Russia – And The Ones That Decided to Leave [Updated Weekly]

Image
  Full List of Companies That Have Stayed in Russia – And The Ones That Decided to Leave [Updated Weekly] from Read, websiteplanet , via ame liabrunolh@gmail.com With this in mind, how are companies responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? We’ve compiled the internet’s most extensive list of multinational companies and their responses to the invasion. While some companies have been praised for their efforts, others have been justifiably accused of not doing enough. This article covers those companies that have left or partially left Russia, and those that have stayed. We’ll provide regular updates to keep the information accurate and relevant, so make sure to check back in! Disclaimer Our report can only reflect companies for which data is available from independent sources, or that have publicly stated their response to the war in Ukraine. A full investigation of all companies operating in Russia, or not, isn’t possible at this time, due to a lack of transparency. Countries with mo
Read more

Social Breakdown Starts With Skipping a Stop Sign

Image
Even with fewer cars on the road in 2020, traffic fatalities were up. Blame receding law enforcement. Image from article: Heavy traffic in New York, June 4   PHOTO:  NIYI FOTE/ZUMA PRESS By Warren Kozak , The Wall Street Journal , July 25, 2021 4:31 pm ET New York You’ve probably never heard of Henry Hale Bliss, but he holds a dubious distinction in American history. On the evening of Sept. 13, 1899, Bliss, a 69-year-old real-estate developer, stepped off the Eighth Avenue trolley at 74th Street and Central Park West in Manhattan. As he reached back to assist a female rider off the trolley, he was hit by an electric taxi driven by Arthur Smith. Bliss was taken to Roosevelt Hospital, where he died the next morning, thus becoming the first recorded automobile fatality in the U.S.   Bliss image from Wikipedia The accident made headlines in New York papers. Today, unless the victim is a celebrity, traffic deaths are rarely considered newsworthy. That might be because there have been rough
Read more

[updated 12/17] Plastic Water Bottles Collection/Eradication in Cleveland Park, Washington DC

Image
For the previous entry to this blog [11/30],  see ; scroll down for 12/17 Due to a number of factors, your scribbler has been unable during the past several weeks to keep up his blog on his minor, personal efforts to pick up (and dispose of, in public waste receptacles) plastic water bottles (PWBs) and other trash, ranging from left-over plastic gloves to used prophylactics, in his Cleveland Park neighborhood in the NW Quadrant of Washington, DC: Today, your blogger, in better shape, " Afoot and light-hearted ," returned to his near-daily account of his neighborhood PWBs/other trash excursion, which covers the following area of Cleveland Park: --Tilden Street, at its intersections with Connecticut Avenue and Spring of Freedom Road; --Spring of Freedom Road with its intersection at Rock Creek Park;  --Porter Street at its intersection with Connecticut Avenue; --Connecticut Avenue at its intersection with the University of the District of Columbia (UDC)
Read more