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- Mar 25, 2012
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- IOM
The problem is that the term 'herd immunity' is being thrown about by people who have no idea what it actually means. If you show some of these articles you're talking about to, for example, an actual virologist, they'll probably say something quite rude.
There's a good argument that the term 'herd immunity' shouldn't be used at all for simply allowing a majority of a population to catch a disease, and should be strictly applied to it being achieved through vaccination.
Sweden has peaked at around 6-7% of people having antibodies to protect against Covid-19 infection, with increasing evidence that immunity can fade within months. That's a million miles away from herd immunity, which has, I repeat, never been stated as an objective in Sweden.
By all accounts the reason Sweden is doing so well is that they're doing a great job on social distancing and hygiene and having very strong and cohesive societal structures that lend themselves well to a population working well as a group to limit the spread of a very dangerous disease. Their success has nothing to do with herd immunity, because they don't have it.
Further reading -
There's a good argument that the term 'herd immunity' shouldn't be used at all for simply allowing a majority of a population to catch a disease, and should be strictly applied to it being achieved through vaccination.
Sweden has peaked at around 6-7% of people having antibodies to protect against Covid-19 infection, with increasing evidence that immunity can fade within months. That's a million miles away from herd immunity, which has, I repeat, never been stated as an objective in Sweden.
By all accounts the reason Sweden is doing so well is that they're doing a great job on social distancing and hygiene and having very strong and cohesive societal structures that lend themselves well to a population working well as a group to limit the spread of a very dangerous disease. Their success has nothing to do with herd immunity, because they don't have it.
Further reading -
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