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Maybe someone here knows the answer but doesn't the 'herd immunity' theory assume we build a long term immunity to the disease in question after being infected?
by weare138 6y ago
Maybe someone here knows the answer but doesn't the 'herd immunity' theory assume we build a long term immunity to the disease in question after being infected? What happens if COVID turns out to be like the influenza virus and constantly mutates or like ebola where our immunity is temporary?
- lmilcin 6y agoImagine a world where only 1% of population is ever leaving homes and 99% is forever chained to their desks. It would seem that it would be enough for only that 1% of population to build immunity to largely stop transmission of the virus. Of course, it would still be possible for somebody to move the virus from home to home without getting infected, but the idea is that you will not get a pandemic from that because it would not be enough to sustain it. The whole premise of article is that the population is not homogenous and different people are responsible for transporting viruses in different way. If a small proportion of population that is outsize contribution into transmission gets immunity, then the entire population benefits much more than if these people were part of completely homogenous population described by simple equations.