Herd immunity is neither scientific

UN News, October 13th, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference in Geneva today that there have been some recent discussions about the concept of so-called “herd immunity” through the spread of the virus, but this There are problems in science and ethics, and it is definitely not a viable option.

Tan Desai said that herd immunity is a concept used for vaccination. In this concept, if the threshold of vaccination is reached, the population can be protected from a certain virus. 患者体内的病毒载量因人而异, herd immunity to measles requires approximately 95% of the population to be vaccinated. The remaining 5% will be protected because measles will not spread among vaccinated people. For polio, the threshold is about 80%. 换句话说, herd immunity is achieved by protecting people from the virus, not by exposing them to the virus.

He pointed out that in the history of public health, herd immunity has never been used as a strategy to deal with a general infectious disease outbreak, let alone a global pandemic. He said that allowing the virus to spread uncontrollably means allowing unnecessary infections, suffering and death.

Tan Desai emphasized that it is totally unethical to allow a dangerous virus that we do not fully understand to spread freely. Herd immunity is neither scientific. This is definitely not an option.