According to a JAMA article published on March 3, 2021, “there is growing optimism and hope that by virtue of ongoing immunization efforts, seasonality (declining infections through August), and naturally acquired immunity, by spring and early summer 2021 in the U.S. there will be a substantial decline in the number of deaths and hospitalizations related to COVID-19. That said, herd …
Herd immunity is the point where there’s enough people that have been either infected or vaccinated that you basically can’t sustain transmission in the community and if one case leads to less than one new infection, then eventually it can’t be sustained. Estimates vary on how much of the population needs to have immunity to reach that goal. Dr. Anthony …
The key to herd immunity is that, even if a person becomes infected, there are too few susceptible hosts around to maintain transmission; those who have been vaccinated or have already had the infection cannot contract and spread the virus. A vaccine’s ability to block transmission doesn’t need to be 100% to make a difference. Even 70% effectiveness would be …
The State of Louisiana Department of Public Health has been publishing the nursing home Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID19) statistics of the 281 nursing homes in the state since April 18, 2020. The following are the results of the analysis of these data. A database was created containing the name of the facility, the initial census, the COVID prevalence, and the …
Conspiracy theories and misinformation fuel mistrust in vaccines and could push levels that potential COVID-19 vaccines are taken in the United States and Britain below the rates needed to protect communities against the disease, according to a new study. The study of 8,000 people in the two countries found that fewer people would “definitely” take a COVID-19 vaccine than the …
Dr. Anthony Fauci displayed his trademark bluntness in an address to the medical community at Thomas Jefferson University, warning against premature hopes of “herd immunity” to COVID-19. It remains a puzzle why some people get very sick yet most do not and it remains difficult to predict which are which although genetics and previous exposures to viruses may both play …
