Herd Immunity achievable? (Page 3): False.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Los-Angeles-Shooter wrote:

The concept of 'herd immunity' is largely a fraud, created to push excessive and sometimes harmful vaccinations. Purpose? Drug industry profits.

False.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Delderby wrote:

As I understand : herd immunity has nothing to do with a vaccine. It is the concept of allowing people to become infected, after which the survivors are immune. The downside is many will die first. Once the herd becomes large enough, there will be no further outbreaks and the virus will disappear.

Sometimes it does depend upon vaccine.
That is how we defeated polio during my youth.

SalvageDiver Loc: Huntington Beach CA

David Martin wrote:

Herd immunity = the resistance to the spread of a contagious disease within a population that results if a sufficiently high proportion of individuals are immune to the disease, whether through vaccination or having survived the infection. Vaccination is a means of achieving herd immunity rapidly while preventing infection and thus preventing deaths.

exactly!

birder585 Loc: Rochester, NY

You got that right!

Merlin1300 Loc: New England, But Now & Forever SoTX

Herd Immunity: Case in point - Measles.
Immunize all the kids - and the disease fades out.
Then Wackos claim religious exemptions, and suddenly Measles is BAAAACKKKK.
But this has been self-critiquing, as only those kids who's parents refused their immunization got sick.
Similar (as mentioned above) with Polio - which is still out there !!

Flyerace Loc: Mt Pleasant, WI

It's time for all good people to understand that the chance of EVER having a vaccine is remote. If it were that easy, we would have a vaccine for the common cold-the most prevalent virus in the world. There has never been a viral vaccine that worked. Even the flu vaccines are usually wrong and not for the one the hits us. Just hold on for awhile longer. Stay away from people (6') and wash your hands. With all this hand washing, there should be fewer colds this year, too.

htbrown Loc: San Francisco Bay Area

Flyerace wrote:

It's time for all good people to understand that the chance of EVER having a vaccine is remote. If it were that easy, we would have a vaccine for the common cold-the most prevalent virus in the world. There has never been a viral vaccine that worked. Even the flu vaccines are usually wrong and not for the one the hits us. Just hold on for awhile longer. Stay away from people (6') and wash your hands. With all this hand washing, there should be fewer colds this year, too.

The problem with the common cold is that immunity to it wears off in a matter of a few weeks. Immunity to flu lasts a season or so, which is why we have flu shots. With Covid-19, we don't know how long immunity lasts. Early reports of people who have recovered becoming re-infected suggest you may be right. But those reports are not certain, either. Tests are imperfect and can be imperfectly performed. The truth is, we just don't know. Not yet.

Delderby Loc: Derby UK

htbrown wrote:

The problem with the common cold is that immunity to it wears off in a matter of a few weeks. Immunity to flu lasts a season or so, which is why we have flu shots. With Covid-19, we don't know how long immunity lasts. Early reports of people who have recovered becoming re-infected suggest you may be right. But those reports are not certain, either. Tests are imperfect and can be imperfectly performed. The truth is, we just don't know. Not yet.

I understood that the problem with the common cold is that it is not common. Does not a host of new strains emerge each year?

David Martin Loc: Cary, NC

Flyerace wrote:

There has never been a viral vaccine that worked.

You mean except for the vaccines we have to prevent measles, mumps, polio, smallpox, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, HPV (human papilloma virus), rubella, varicella (the one that causes chicken pox and shingles) plus several others?

There is a good chance of ultimately having a vaccine at some point, so long as the virus does not mutate.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Flyerace wrote:

It's time for all good people to understand that the chance of EVER having a vaccine is remote. If it were that easy, we would have a vaccine for the common cold-the most prevalent virus in the world. There has never been a viral vaccine that worked. Even the flu vaccines are usually wrong and not for the one the hits.

I am really tired of hearing this virus compared to the flu - it is completely different!!

Polio is a virus - and the two vaccines developed in the early 1950s have worked for sixty years!

Smallpox is actually two viruses, and the vaccine for it has last even longer.

Measles and mumps are also viruses - and their vaccines work fine.

htbrown Loc: San Francisco Bay Area

Delderby wrote:

I understood that the problem with the common cold is that it is not common. Does not a host of new strains emerge each year?

New strains of the cold (and of the flu) appear with some regularity. But you don't retain your immunity to either the way you do with, say, the measles.

With Covid-19 nobody knows, of course, but a not-unlikely outcome may be that it becomes like the flu, where immunity does not persist long term, but we will develop ameliorating measures to protect those most at risk, and new strains will be likely. Such a stable future may be years off, however.

htbrown Loc: San Francisco Bay Area

rehess wrote:

I am really tired of hearing this virus compared to the flu - it is completely different!!

Polio is a virus - and the two vaccines developed in the early 1950s have worked for sixty years!

Smallpox is actually two viruses, and the vaccine for it has last even longer.

Measles and mumps are also viruses - and their vaccines work fine.

Structurally, Covid-19 is more like the flu and the cold than it is like any of the above.

Merlin1300 Loc: New England, But Now & Forever SoTX

Why isn't there a vaccine for Rhinovirus (the cold) - there's NO MONEY IN IT !!
It doesn't typically KILL people, and it mutates so fast that last months vaccine is already out of date.
The Flu (influenza Virus) mutates annually, vaccines are relatively effective and prevent deaths.
https://www.healthline.com/health/cold-flu/influenza-a-vs-b#types
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/viruses/index.htm
We are currently afflicted with a second strain of SARS-CoV, much nastier than the cold !!
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/types.html
SARS-CoV-2 is the 4th coronavirus - just STUPID after the third we didn't prep our vaccine machine!
Me - I'd be happy to participate in the current vaccine testing cycle - provided all tested actually receive the vaccine and NOT a placebo (inactivated or attenuated vaccine efficacy would be based on development of antibodies)

htbrown Loc: San Francisco Bay Area

Merlin1300 wrote:

Why isn't there a vaccine for Rhinovirus (the cold... (show quote)

Actually, it isn't so much that it mutates (although it does). The bigger issue is that immunity to the cold virus is short-term. All a vaccine does is prompt the body to create an immunity. A vaccine for the cold would only last as long as the immunity conferred by having it to begin with: not long.

Merlin1300 Loc: New England, But Now & Forever SoTX

htbrown wrote:

Actually, it isn't so much that it mutates (although it does). The bigger issue is that immunity to the cold virus is short-term.
A vaccine for the cold would only last not long.

Yep - as stated - getting the shot would unlikely prevent you from getting a cold 4 - 6 months later. But the real reason is a simple URI/Common Cold rarely kills anyone - so no one would pay, nor would any insurance company / Medicare reimburse for the immunization.