Herd Immunity For COVID-19 Is Still A Terrible Idea
Dispelling myths about herd immunity and coronavirus without a vaccine
2020 has been a truly strange year. Of all the articles that I never expected to write, one of the weirdest ones has to be a myth-busting piece about how herd immunity probably isn’t going to save us. I’m famously a fan of herd immunity — my first ‘viral’ article was about how herd immunity is pretty great — and when it comes to vaccines, I’m all for the idea.
Unfortunately, when it comes to COVID-19, herd immunity has never been the solution some people make it out to be.
Herd Immunity
The basic idea of herd immunity is simple — if enough people are immune to a disease, then even if a person comes into the community carrying the illness, they won’t spread it. The few people who aren’t immune are protected, because most of the people they interact with are immune and so they can’t get the disease.
This works really well if you have a vaccination for infections. Measles, for example, used to cause massive outbreaks and kill hundreds of thousands a year, but in most…
