Fauci Warns Herd Immunity for COVID-19 is 'Dangerous' and 'Nonsense'
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said that letting the COVID-19 spread to have herd immunity is nonsense and dangerous.
According to CNBC, Fauci said that letting the coronavirus rip the U.S.population unchecked to infect many people as many as possible to achieve the so-called "herd immunity" would only cause unnecessary deaths. Dr. Fauci claims that the idea is nonsense and dangerous.
House Select Subcommittee On Coronavirus Crisis Holds Hearing On Urgent Need For A National Plan WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 31: Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies before a House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis hearing on July 31, 2020 in Washington, DC. Trump administration officials are set to defend the federal government's response to the coronavirus crisis at the hearing hosted by a House panel calling for a national plan to contain the virus.
When asked about whether herd immunity is a good strategy for the U.S. to adopt, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told Yahoo News:
"I'll tell you exactly how I feel about that. If you let infections rip as it were and say, 'Let everybody get infected that's going to be able to get infected, and then we'll have herd immunity.' Quite frankly, that is nonsense, and anybody who knows anything about epidemiology will tell you, that is nonsense and very dangerous."
What is herd immunity?
When enough of the people is immune to a disease, herd immunity happens, making it stop the disease's spread and protecting the rest of the people in a community, says the Mayo Clinic.
Herd immunity is achieved through natural infection or when enough people were exposed to the disease and developed antibodies against it and vaccinations.
Global health experts say many scientists believe that 60%-80% of the population needs to take the vaccine or have natural antibodies to achieve herd immunity. However, most Americans remain susceptible to a coronavirus infection, the nation's top health experts said.
On Thursday, the head of the World Health Organization's emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, Maria Van Kerkhove, told CNN's "New Day" that with the herd immunity idea, it is a phrase used when vaccination is used to a certain amount of the population to protect the rest of the people that are not able to get the vaccine.
Kerkhove added that herd immunity as an approach to let the coronavirus circulate is dangerous and might lead to extreme cases and unnecessary deaths.
According to NBC News, despite concerns with herd immunity, on Monday, a senior White House official briefing reporters on a call mentioned an online movement called "Great Barrington Declaration," that favors the idea.
Latin Post recently reported that over 80 researchers claim that the idea of herd immunity is dangerous and is unsupported by scientific evidence.
Meanwhile, USA Today report stated that estimates stand from 50-70% of the population. The World Health Organization's director-general also warned that herd immunity is neither an ethical strategy nor useful for curbing the COVID-19 pandemic.
The discussions of reaching herd immunity had misunderstood what the concept of it means, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned.
He was quoted in a Fortune report, "Herd immunity is a concept used for vaccination, in which a community can be protected from a certain virus if a threshold of vaccination is reached."
Check these out:
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