Is Herd Immunity an answer to this fight against Covid?

*Is Herd Immunity an answer to this fight against Covid?*

Herd immunity is a form of indirect protection from infectious disease that occurs when a large percentage of a population has become immune to an infection, whether through vaccination or previous infections, thereby providing a measure of protection for individuals who are not immune.

There is a big class of people who want that the Government should lift the lockdown, open up everything and leave it to the people to take care of themselves and Corona. They are pointing to some small European countries which are relying on Herd Immunity to tackle Covid.

So in India, much is being said about ‘ herd immunity’ . 

Don’t get fooled or become careless or complacent. ( by herd immunity theory). 

A society develops herd immunity against an infectious disease, when a majority of individuals become immune to the disease either through an earlier infection or through vaccination. 

Even though estimates vary,  most experts agree that @ least 80-90% of the population needs to get infected or vaccinated for herd immunity to develop !!!

In the absence of a vaccination, implications of trying the herd immunity theory are both scary & disastrous. 

Those countries which in early stages thought about ‘ letting herd immunity develop ‘ are now facing disastrous consequences @ a very heavy human cost. 

Thankfully neither India nor Maharashtra has ascribed to this theory.

So sadly the situation is very fluid.

Allow the disease to spread too quickly, it overwhelms the health system and causes many people to die “unnecessarily”; do it too slowly, and it takes that much longer for life to come back to “normal”.

Therefore, for almost all countries, at this juncture, it is a cruel choice between saving lives and saving livelihoods.

@ Dayanand Nene