From the onset of coronavirus, the only solution that stood effective in all cases was herd immunity. This is when all the people are immunized against the virus, and there are no more hosts available for the virus to infect or spread through. This idea was first criticized but then later accepted. It was believed that if even almost eighty-five percentage point of people were vaccinated, then the Covid 19 virus would no longer survive or harm anyone anymore.
Now, this is no longer the goal, and experts are looking for another way to fight Covid. It was stated by Jones, who advises on vaccination to the CDC, stated, “This type of achievement is nearly impossible to have, and I don’t see how this is going to work.”
Jones further mentioned it is true that the vaccinations have proved to be effective in many cases, but to stop the virus completely from spreading, has not been very helpful. It has also been reported that vaccination does not guarantee a lifetime guarantee; these vaccines and their effect only last for a few months after that, people become potential hosts for the virus again.
So even if this idea of herd immunity had been successfully implemented, the Covid would not have vanished or stopped as there are many tricks that are far complex to understand.
Brooks mentioned his worry that the CDC might be planning to back off from the herd immunity idea, which would further demotivate the people from getting vaccinated. If this happens, then a spike of cases will be seen with high death rates too.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, who works at the University of Pennsylvania, stated that it was confusing to see people taking herd immunity lightly as if it would be easy to understand and implement. It is a classical way of reducing the disease with the help of medicine from livestock. But humans are not herd, mentioned Jamieson. “They can not just assume that it would work on humans.”
One way to make the Covid campaigns powerful would have been if the message was to take care of everyone’s health instead of personal health. With the transformation of the virus into more deadly forms, now the spreading rate of the virus is also increasing drastically. The more concerning fact is that even with vaccination and all the other treatments till now, no permanent solution has been found.
Raj Bhopal, who is a retired professor of public health, mentioned that science and its complexity are not easily understandable, so it is not possible to understand the complexity of a step like herd immunity. With such an uncertainty in the final outcome or result, The public can not be made to simply participate willingly or unwillingly. It would be a chaotic and dangerous step to take. Each and every factor has to be considered in making decisions on such a massive scale.
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