Last year, health protocols like wearing masks and social distancing have been a political issue in the U.S. One adviser to outgoing President Donald Trump even suggested that herd immunity — that is, when most of a population is immune to an infectious disease provides indirect protection — could be reached if the country lets the disease run free.
However, Osterholm said the best idea to achieve herd immunity is through higher rates of vaccination, not transmission.
”Getting there with infection or vaccination, with protection or disease — we will get there,” Ossterholm said as quoted in a Bloomberg report. “Our job is to minimize disease-related protection.”
Earlier, Dr. Anthony Fauci said that attaining herd immunity against COVID-19 requires the vaccination of around 90 percent of the U.S. population.
“We need to have some humility here. We really don’t know what the real number is. I think the real range is somewhere between 70 to 90 percent. But, I’m not going to say 90 percent,” Fauci said.
