UN warns against pursuing herd immunity to stop COVID-19

Alshaheen News

Head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has warned against deliberately allowing coronavirus to spread in the hope of achieving the so-called herd immunity, saying the idea is unethical.

During a virtual press briefing late Monday, Tedros said “herd immunity is achieved by protecting people from a virus, not by exposing them to it.” He also explained that “herd immunity is a concept used for vaccination, in which a population can be protected from a certain virus if a threshold of vaccination is reached.”

“Never in the history of public health has herd immunity been used as a strategy for responding to an outbreak, let alone a pandemic,” Tedros further said.

COVID-19 has killed well over one million people and has infected more than 37 million since it first surfaced in China late last year.

He pointed out that it has been estimated that less than 10% of the population in most countries are believed to have contracted the disease, noting that letting the virus circulate unchecked therefore means allowing unnecessary infections, suffering and death.