Herd Immunity

Herd Immunity

Part of: GS Prelims and GS-III- Health

In News:

• Chief scientific adviser to the UK government had suggested to UK that authorities need to contain the spread of the virus but would “not suppress it completely”. 
• Elaborating further it was suggested that a 60 per cent infection rate would help build up a degree of ‘herd immunity’.”
• 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, thereby providing a measure of protection for individuals who are not immune

What happens in the case of coronavirus where there is no vaccine? 

• The approach would require those exposed to the virus to build natural immunity and stop the human-to-human transmission.
•  If a high enough proportion of individuals in a population are immune, the majority will protect the few susceptible people because the pathogen is less likely to find a susceptible person

Is it the model which UK is planning to fight coronavirus?

• On the face of criticism of such soft approach and high human cost involved, UK government stated that herd immunity was not the government’s policy or goal.