Scientists Say That Americans Need to Move on From Their Fixation on Herd Immunity
The end of this pandemic sometimes gets boiled down to two words: herd immunity. But now, as an academic debate swirls over when or even if America can get to a high enough percentage of people with immunity to reach that goal, some scientists say it’s time for the public to stop worrying about it.
“I think we’re focusing too much of our time, our effort, on quibbling over a number,” says Lauren Ancel Meyers, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and head of the university’s COVID-19 Modeling Consortium. Instead, Meyers and others say the public should follow one simple piece of advice: Get vaccinated.
“This pandemic ends when enough people are protected from severe illness, and selfishly you want to be protected from severe illness,” says Devi Sridhar, a professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Vaccination “helps you and it helps your community.”
