On Tuesday, a vaccine expert from the United Kingdom dismissed overall herd immunity against the COVID-19 pandemic as “myths” and “impossible.”
Professor Andrew Pollard, head of the Oxford Vaccine Group and chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI), said that it is “impossible” to achieve herd immunity with the rapid spread of highly contagious Delta variants.
He said: “I think we are currently in this situation. Herd immunity is impossible because it will still infect vaccinated individuals.” politics“I suspect that the virus will throw out a variant next, and it may spread better among vaccinated people. Therefore, this is a reason not to develop a vaccine plan around herd immunity.”
The professor also believes that the new coronavirus pandemic should not be compared with measles, which is controlled through a universal vaccination plan.
“The problem with this virus is [it is] Not measles.If 95% of people are vaccinated against measles, the virus will not spread among the population,” he told the All-Party Parliamentary Organization (APPG) on Tuesday, according to reports protector.
The concept of herd immunity relies on the vast majority of people to obtain protection from the virus through vaccination or previous infection.
In the United States, the goal set by the Biden administration is to vaccinate at least 70% of the adult population in the country and achieve herd immunity by providing people with sufficient antibodies to the new coronavirus.
As of Tuesday, only 50.3% of the American population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while only 58.9% of Americans have received at least one dose of the vaccine. data From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As of Sunday, the United States reported an average of 660,000 vaccinations per day. In the past 7 days, health officials have also injected 432,000 first doses a day. However, it is reported that many states with the lowest vaccination rates are still reporting outbreaks, with Mississippi at 50%, Wyoming at 52.2%, and Louisiana at 53.6%. NBC Finance Channel.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, COVID-19 has so far infected 36,050,630 people in the United States and claimed 618,108 lives.
Through the deal with Novavax, the EU has obtained up to 4.57 billion doses of Covid vaccine from seven different suppliers.
Photo: AFP/Sayed Khan
