“Wait. Do I understand you’re stating that “herd immunity” is an invalid concept?”
No. We achieved herd immunity with diseases like polio, smallpox, measles, mumps with vaccinations.
We can never achieve herd immunity with the common cold or influenza, as I understand it, because it is constantly changing.
That’s all I’m sayin’.
We achieved herd immunity with diseases like polio, smallpox, measles, mumps with vaccinations.
We can never achieve herd immunity with the common cold or influenza, as I understand it, because it is constantly changing.
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From microbiologist son:
“Short term herd immunity to the flu is possible with vaccination if enough people get the vaccine every year. Yes, it will continue to mutate, so long term herd immunity is only possible if the majority of people get a new flu vaccine every year. There is no vaccine for colds, mainly because they are caused by many different viruses, so it’s not practical to get many vaccines each year for colds. However, theoretically we could achieve short term herd immunity with colds if we did develop many cold vaccines every year like the flu.
Herd immunity to measles mumps and polio could theoretically be reached without vaccination, however over 90% of the population would have to get sick, and these diseases have high mortality rates, especially for children. So achieving herd immunity through vaccination is a better option for those diseases.”