About half of Americans report receiving at least one COVID-19 vaccine, but will that be enough to attain herd immunity? "Track the Vax" host Serena Marshall asked Dr. Tom Frieden, former CDC director under President Obama and current president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives that very question.
“Unfortunately, what we're seeing in the U.S. is some pockets, demographic, geographic, even ideological, which are getting much less vaccination coverage. And in those pockets, we're likely to continue to see clusters and potentially outbreaks, Frieden said.
When comparing COVID-19 to the outbreak and eradication of smallpox, Frieden said the world will not eradicate COVID. “It's going to be with us for the indefinite future. We're going to have to learn to live with it and help people not die from it,” he said.
Like other diseases such as measles, herd immunity with COVID will take decades to achieve, Frieden added. Also, people have misconceptions about what herd immunity, he said. “It's not eradication where the disease is gone. “What we expect is that we get a high enough rate of vaccination, so we will not have widespread, explosive outbreaks of COVID. We will still be at risk for outbreaks in institutions; homeless shelters, correctional facilities, nursing homes, housing projects, even schools and universities.”
SOURCE: MedPage Today May 26, 2021