‘Unethical’: WHO chief slams herd immunity as COVID-19 response

The World Health Organization chief has warned against suggestions by some to just allow COVID-19 to spread in the hope of achieving so-called herd immunity, saying this was “unethical”. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a virtual press briefing on Monday that “herd immunity is a concept used for vaccination, in which a population can be protected from a certain virus if a threshold of vaccination is reached”. He pointed out that for measles, for instance, it is estimated that if 95 percent of the population is vaccinated, the remaining five percent will also be protected from the spread of the virus. For polio, the threshold is estimated at 80 percent, he said. “Herd immunity is achieved by protecting people from a virus, not by exposing them to it,” Tedros said. “Never in the history of public health has herd immunity been used as a strategy for responding to an outbreak, let alone a pandemic,” he insisted, calling the strategy “scientifically and ethically problematic”. “Allowing a dangerous virus that we don’t fully understand to run free is simply unethical. It’s not an option.” style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0; left: 0;">