Dozens of scientists from around the world warned against a "herd immunity" approach to curbing the spread of Covid-19 in a letter published Wednesday in the medical journal The Lancet.
Herd immunity, which occurs when enough people become immune to a contagious disease to make further spread unlikely, is a "dangerous fallacy unsupported by the scientific evidence," the scientists wrote.
Senior White House officials briefed reporters two days ago on a call in which one official highlighted an online movement called the "Great Barrington Declaration," which favors herd immunity.
Those trained in infectious diseases say at least 60 percent of a population needs to have been exposed to a virus to reach herd immunity.
Indications so far are that just 10 percent of the world's population has been infected with the coronavirus.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said Monday that a herd immunity strategy is "scientifically and ethically problematic.".
Tedros said scientists do not yet fully understand how strong Covid-19 immunity is or how long it lasts after an infection. »
![image for [image]All-Female Crew Makes History At Florida Fire Department](8ff145bc-19e3-5198-a36e-106cdebf223e_thumb.jpg)
