We probably won’t reach herd immunity against COVID-19 any time soon, but it’s OK, experts say – CBC

Threshold a moving target, but closer we get, the more we can return to normal life

May 05, 2021

Every day, more and more Canadians are vaccinated against COVID-19.

It has often been suggested that as this trend continues, we will soon reach a point where so many people are invulnerable to the virus that it will largely die out due to a lack of hosts to infect — offering indirect protection to the entire population, even those who are not immunized.

The goal of “herd immunity” is often described as just around the corner, signalling a return to pre-pandemic normality.

But will we actually get there?

Probably not, say epidemiologists and mathematicians who have been studying the latest numbers closely. At least, not any time soon.

These experts highlight several major barriers that stand in the way: the arrival of new COVID-19 variants, vaccine hesitancy among adults and the fact that millions of children can’t be vaccinated at all. Even in a best-case scenario, this makes the herd-immunity threshold a high bar. Practically speaking, it could be out of reach.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/herd-immunity-threshold-canada-covid-1.6013685

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