The UK backs away from “herd immunity” coronavirus proposal amid blowback
The UK’s chief science adviser suggested allowing the coronavirus to spread to build immunity. Government ministers said they’ll promote self-isolation instead.
By Anya van Wagtendonkanyavw@protonmail.com Mar 15, 2020, 12:41pm EDT
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The argument behind achieving herd immunity is that doing so would minimize the risk of a coronavirus resurgence similar to the second wave of the Spanish Flu of 1918. In a successful herd immunity scenario, a country’s population — the herd — would become infected with the virus, recover, and then have an immunity to it, making them resistant to reinfection.
For this to work in his country, according to Vallance, the virus would need to spread to about 60 percent of the UK.
With 66 million people living in the UK nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, that strategy could lead to as many as 40 million people infected. Depending on the mortality rate — which depends on access to medical care and other factors but is estimated to be 1 percent globally — the death rate en route to improved immunity could range from 300,000 to more than a million.
That reality led to more than 200 scientists and medical professionals pushing back against the herd immunity strategy in an open letter .. http://maths.qmul.ac.uk/~vnicosia/UK_scientists_statement_on_coronavirus_measures.pdf .. Saturday. These experts argued that herd immunity does not “seem a viable option” because it could overwhelm the UK’s National Health Service with very sick patients. Instead, they called for strict social distancing measures of a more serious variety than the government has currently recommended.
“By putting in place social distancing measures now, the growth can be slowed down dramatically, and thousands of lives can be spared,” the letter reads. “We consider the social distancing measures taken as of today as insufficient, and we believe that additional and more restrictive measures should be taken immediately, as it is already happening in other countries across the world.”
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