Head of the Oxford Vaccine Group in the UK says that the highly transmissible Delta variant of COVID-19 has made herd immunity, in which a country’s whole population becomes immune to a virus, unlikely.
In an interview with the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus, Oxford University’s COVID-19 vaccine’s lead researcher, Professor Andrew Pollard, said that the fear of another, even more transmissible variant remains a possibility, and as a result, there is nothing that can stop the virus from spreading. Although he voiced his concerns about the UK government’s planned third booster dosage of vaccinations, he stated there was no need for “panic.”
“The issue with this virus is that it is not like measles. The measles virus cannot spread in the community if 95 percent of individuals are immunised,” Prof. Pollard stated during the online evidence session. Even vaccinated individuals may become infected with the Delta variant. Those who are still unvaccinated will be exposed to the virus at some time. As a result of the lack of a barrier to transmission, I believe herd immunity is no longer a viable option, and I believe the virus will evolve a new strain that is even more effective at infecting vaccinated people,” he added. According to Professor Paul Hunter, a physician and infectious disease specialist at the University of East Anglia who also noted that existing vaccinations are highly successful in avoiding serious COVID-19 and mortality, but they cannot prevent infections completely.
A notion of herd immunity cannot be achieved because the illness would spread in unprotected people, according to Hunter. “Two doses are probably only 50% protective against infection,” he says. Also discussed were Sajid Javid’s proposals to give the most at-risk populations a third COVID booster injection along with the flu vaccination starting next month. When we find indications of a rise in hospitalisation – or the following step, which would be individuals dying – among those who are vaccinated, we’ll need to ramp up. That’s something we’re not seeing right now,” Prof. Pollard added.
The immune system remembers that we were vaccinated even when immunity levels begin to wane, and we’ll be recognised decades from now for having had those two doses of vaccination. No need to worry right now,” he added, adding that vaccine doses needed to “get where they can have the most effect” in unvaccinated areas of the globe.
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