COVID herd immunity

When most of a population is immune to an infectious disease, this provides indirect protection to those who are not immune to the disease. This called the herd immunity. With the increased COVID vaccination rates, people have started questioning about how longer this pandemic would last. Due to reasons like  vaccine hesitancy, the emergence of new variants and the delayed arrival of vaccinations for children makes reaching the herd immunity threshold against COVID-19  unlikely.

Most of the current vaccines used against COVID-19 are effective against preventing the symptomatic disease but it’s unclear if these vaccines protect people against the infection of the virus. A vaccine that could block the transmission of the disease would be relevant for herd immunity. Therefore, adhering to the current health guidelines against the spread of the virus is a must irrespective of whether someone is vaccinated or not.