Daily Covid-19 Minute: Herd Immunity
It's been said that for this pandemic to be over, we need to reach herd immunity which happens when 60 to 85 % of the country is fully protected, either from vaccination or previous infection. Now some experts argue it could take years to hit that immunity threshold if we ever hit it at all.
The reasons include the fact that more contagious variants are spreading, and they could bump up that herd immunity threshold beyond 85%. In addition, there's a large proportion of people that don't want to get a vaccine making it even harder to reach herd immunity. The good news, however, is even without herd immunity, it's possible to contain this virus, like the annual flu. Especially if we keep vaccinating as many people as possible. This would mean covid would be around but would cause only mild illness rather than hospitalization and death.
