For the past year and a half of COVID-19, we have been constantly told to “follow the science”. Yet much of the science hasn’t added up, changing based on the blowing political winds.
This includes masks, distancing, quarantining the healthy, closing schools and businesses, allowing massive protests but prohibiting small family weddings or funerals, and banning decades old medicines since a certain president suggested they might have therapeutic value.
Herd immunity is another bit of science that is suddenly on par with the Earth being flat. It’s “magical thinking” according to the “follow the science” left because it can be “achieved only through the use of vaccines.” Why then before vaccines were invented, wasn’t every viral pandemic a human extinction event? Mayo Clinic explains herd immunity:
Herd immunity occurs when a large portion of a community (the herd) becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. As a result, the whole community becomes protected — not just those who are immune.
Herd immunity is achieved in one of two ways, through natural infection or vaccination. Once a sufficient percent of the population has immunity, the infection has difficulty finding new victims and burns itself out.
The percentage of the population needing to be immune can vary from 50 to 90 percent, depending on how contagious the virus is. Once common viral infections like mumps, polio, and chickenpox are rare now due to herd immunity.
What is the herd immunity threshold for COVID? It depends on who you ask and when. According to COVID guru Dr Anthony Fauci, the herd immunity threshold can be anywhere from 60 to 85 percent, depending on when he was asked and by whom. So how close are we?
Of the entire US population, 53 percent have had at least one vaccine dose and 44 percent are fully vaccinated. In Colorado, 55 percent have been partially and 49 percent fully vaccinated. Assume, for the sake of this article, that 55 percent of the population has some degree of vaccination immunity from COVID.
Then there is natural immunity from previous infection. The CDC estimates a third of Americans have been infected with COVID. This means we are much closer to herd immunity than naysayers choose to admit. Even with overlap between infected and vaccinated individuals, America is the upper range of Dr Fauci’s herd immunity estimates.
Over the upcoming months, more will be vaccinated or infected, leaving fewer and fewer individuals for the virus to infect. And children rarely get sick from COVID. Who knows how many kids have had COVID without a positive test and now have immunity?
Wouldn’t it be a good time for some thoughtful scientific discussion of herd immunity and where we are? Rather than the constant fear porn and continued emergency orders for lockdowns as seen in California. How about some optimism after over a year of doom and gloom?