There has been a lot of talk, mostly on social media, about establishing herd immunity in the fight against Covid 19. Dr. Deborah Birx, a member of the president’s Coronavirus Task Force spoke on the topic Wednesday during her visit to Michigan, downplaying the idea, saying in part, “I would not be here if the White House believed that herd immunity was an option for America.”
Fox 47 spoke with Dr. Russell Lampen of Spectrum Health on Thursday who described the concept of herd immunity, “If you have enough people who have acquired a disease who have immunity to it, that it becomes more difficult for that virus to transmit.”
Dr. Lampen, a D.O. of Infectious Disease admits there are two real problems with the idea of establishing herd immunity against this virus. First, to get there would require about 70% of the public to have come in contact with the virus, and he says we’re at no more than 10% currently. “You’re talking about, in some ways, unimaginable pain and suffering to get there. If we have to get to 70% before we create a herd immunity situation, you’re looking at a lot of people who will become sick and far more people who will die of Covid before we reach that,” Dr. Lampen explained.
The second problem, according to Dr. Lampen, the antibodies to protect us from reinfection of Covid 19 don’t appear to be permanent. Dr. Lampen said, “I think most people feel that if you contract Covid, you’re likely to have six months, maybe as long as a year of protection. But it’s likely that you won’t have lifelong protection.” Dr. Lampen adds, “I think we’re looking at a situation more analogous to influenza, where you’re looking at more frequent vaccinations.” Dr. Birx further explained Wednesday, “We’ll get to herd immunity through a vaccine and that’s the right way to do it.”
