Never-Ending Misconceptions About Herd Immunity.

Some people mistakenly believe that the concept of herd immunity does not apply to COVID-19 (C-19):
https://amsterdamnews.com/news/2024/10/24/factcheck-herd-immunity-is-not-solution-to-covid-19-pandemic/

I would argue that the experts referenced in this misguided article fail to grasp basic immunology, treating the WHO’s definition as gospel without considering the mechanisms behind population-level immunity. They don’t understand that true herd immunity involves achieving a level of sterilizing immunity across a population that reduces viral transmission to negligible levels, effectively halting productive viral infection. Unfortunately, many physicians and epidemiologists do not recognize that the natural combination of innate immunity and infection-induced neutralizing antibodies is the magic key nature is using for sterilizing viral infection without placing undue immune pressure on the virus.

These experts assume that while herd immunity has been successful against other acute, self-limiting viral diseases, SARS-CoV-2 is somehow different! They still don’t seem to grasp that mass vaccination with non-sterilizing vaccines during this pandemic has been the barrier to establishing herd immunity in highly C-19 vaccinated populations. This misunderstanding is compounded by their belief that declining antibody levels mean that herd immunity cannot be achieved, showing a profound lack of awareness of innate immune training and the rapid recall potential of immunological adaptive memory after re-exposure.

Herd immunity is not about non-sterilizing immune responses that may temporarily protect against (severe) disease --but not against viral infection!- and, therefore, still allow viral transmission. However, the title of this so-called fact-check article (i.e., "Herd immunity is not the solution to the COVID-19 pandemic"), claims that ‘herd immunity’ from previous vaccination or infection only provides protection against the disease whereas the same article is simultaneously pointing out, somewhat contradictorily, that the aspirational target of reaching herd immunity is an unrealistic goal because immunity in highly C-19-vaccinated populations cannot halt viral spread and, therefore, doesn’t meet the criteria for true herd immunity! To make matters even worse, the author ties herd immunity to the complete eradication of SARS-CoV-2.

One can only conclude that the misconceptions and confusion with regard to herd immunity are perpetuated not by the public, but by the media and public health authorities themselves! In other words, we don’t need a new definition of herd immunity; instead, we need a new term to describe the widespread immunological ignorance among many medical professionals, epidemiologists and public health authorities.

However, it should be straightforward to explain to the general public that large-scale natural infection within a population by a virus that typically causes an acute, self-limiting infection leads to herd immunity. In contrast, large-scale vaccination with non-sterilizing vaccines during a pandemic cannot prevent the virus from spreading across the population and instead inevitably places immune pressure on the virus, driving the selection of new variants that can evade immune responses induced by these vaccines or by vaccine breakthrough infections.