Curious about progress toward herd immunity against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)? Understand how herd immunity works, its role in ending the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges involved.
Herd immunity occurs when a large portion of a community (the herd) becomes immune to a disease. The spread of disease from person to person becomes unlikely when herd immunity is achieved. As a result, the whole community becomes protected -- not just those who are immune.
Often, a percentage of the population must be capable of getting a disease in order for it to spread. This is called a threshold proportion. If the proportion of the population that is immune to the disease is greater than this threshold, the spread of the disease will decline. This is known as the herd immunity threshold.
What percentage of a community needs to be immune in order to achieve herd immunity? It varies from disease to disease. The more contagious a disease is, the greater the proportion of the population that needs to be immune to the disease to stop its spread. For example, the measles is a highly contagious illness. It's estimated that 94% of the population must be immune to interrupt the chain of transmission.
Herd immunity can be reached when enough people in the population have recovered from a disease and have developed protective antibodies against future infection. However, experts now believe it'll likely be difficult to achieve herd immunity for COVID-19.
Getting COVID-19 offers some natural protection or immunity from reinfection with the virus that causes COVID-19. It's estimated that getting COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccination both result in a low risk of another infection with a similar variant for at least six months.
But because reinfection is possible and COVID-19 can cause severe medical complications, it's recommended that people who have already had COVID-19 get a COVID-19 vaccine.
There are some major problems with relying on community infection to create herd immunity to the virus that causes COVID-19:
Herd immunity also can be reached when enough people have been vaccinated against a disease and have developed protective antibodies against future infection. Unlike the natural infection method, vaccines create immunity without causing illness or resulting complications. Using the concept of herd immunity, vaccines have successfully controlled contagious diseases such as smallpox, polio, diphtheria, rubella and many others.
The COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States are:
Herd immunity makes it possible to protect the population from a disease, including those who can't be vaccinated, such as newborns or those who have compromised immune systems.
But reaching herd immunity through vaccination against COVID-19 will likely be difficult for many reasons. For example:
Given the challenges, it's unclear if herd immunity to the virus that causes COVID-19 will be reached. However, the number of fully vaccinated adults continues to rise. In addition, more than 80 million people in the U.S. have had confirmed infections with the COVID-19 virus -- though, again, it's not clear how long immunity lasts after infection.
Even if it isn't currently possible to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the COVID-19 vaccine can lower the risk of death or serious illness caused by COVID-19. It lowers your risk and lowers the risk that you may spread it to people around you.
There are steps you can take to reduce your risk of infection. When possible, get a COVID-19 vaccine. You are considered up to date with your vaccines if you have gotten all recommended COVID-19 vaccine shots when you become eligible.
After getting vaccinated, you can more safely return to doing activities that you might not have been able to do because of high numbers of people with COVID-19 in your area. However, if you are in an area with a high number of people with COVID-19 in the hospital, the CDC recommends wearing a mask indoors in public.
The CDC recommends following these precautions:
If you have a chronic medical condition and may have a higher risk of serious illness, check with your health care professional about other ways to protect yourself.
©2024 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (MRMER). All rights reserved.
2024-04-27T13:02:49Z dg43tfdfdgfd