If Herd Immunity Is Not Reached In Ireland

is_that_so · 20-07-2021 1:19pm

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117636853#Comment_117636853

Let's make sure that we've got it all right, shall we?

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/countries-vaccinating-children-against-covid-19-2021-06-29/

20-07-2021 1:23pm

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117636848#Comment_117636848

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/experts-say-its-unlikely-fully-vaccinated-people-are-unknowingly-spreading-covid-19

This article states that experts are of the opinion that even with Delta vaccinated people who are asymptomatic will unlikely spread it.

Their viral low is minimal but symptomatic is probably a different story.

I'm just reading and exploring all the different points of view.

Wolf359f · 20-07-2021 1:53pm

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117636885#Comment_117636885

What's your point? You said Israel was one of 2 countries vaccinating kids. I said there's at least 3 countries, which is correct.

is_that_so · 20-07-2021 2:07pm

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117637071#Comment_117637071

After which I shared a link to far more information, i.e. I informed myself. That tends to forego the need to lecture posters but if you feel a gnawing need to do that...

hmmm · 20-07-2021 2:27pm

Israel has become a bad example, they have relatively high vaccine coverage but a hardcore group of people who refuse to take the vaccine.

In saying that most informed commentators seem to now be saying herd immunity is no longer possible with Delta, the percentages required are just too high - particularly if the virus can infect vaccinated people (note the vaccine still provides excellent protection against disease).

The best-case scenario now is that enough people get vaccinated that we can reduce this to a measles-like type of virus, one which is circulating at a very low level and causes only the occasional flare-up. If enough people don't get vaccinated, we'll have a much higher prevalence. In order to reduce the risk to the very elderly and immune compromised younger people it's our social duty in my opinion to get vaccinated and do our bit.

yosemitesam1 · 20-07-2021 2:50pm

Herd immunity is a theory.

There is zero evidence to back up that it is possible to achieve for covid.

Covid isn't going to ever dissapear from the population even if we hit 100% vaccination.

20-07-2021 2:55pm

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117636848#Comment_117636848

That's really not how it works. Protection from sterilizing immunity will gradually wane due to antigenic drift. This however is a gradual process over time. Even so immune memory should continue to provide protection from severe illness for a very long time. Possibly for life.

As the virus becomes endemic vaccines may require periodic updates and boosters to ensure adequate protection for elderly and immunocompromised but the idea that virus will become immune to the vaccine (as in offer no protection at all) is really not accurate.

Former Former Former · 20-07-2021 2:56pm

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117637681#Comment_117637681

Herd immunity is not a theory. The issue is that people seem to think it's a binary situation - it's not. We won't pass a certain % of vaccinations and suddenly there is zero risk.

However, the more people who get vaccinated, the safer it becomes for the unvaccinated and vulnerable people. At some point, the risk to those people becomes manageable and we get back to something resembling normality. That is what herd immunity is. We achieved herd immunity to measles years ago but you still get the odd outbreak.

Covid is never going to disappear, I agree with that - however that doesn't mean we shouldn't do everything we can to reduce its impact.

yosemitesam1 · 20-07-2021 3:12pm

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117637734#Comment_117637734

It very much is a theory with regards to covid.

There is a lot of variation in diseases which makes them susceptible or not to herd immunity.

Covid is going to be much closer to totally unsusceptible to herd immunity than totally controllable by herd immunity.

topper75 · 20-07-2021 3:17pm

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117636904#Comment_117636904

A classic Covid-19 article.

Experts say, Experts think, Experts believe...

You are way into it before they name one. One guy: some Patterson.

No paper to quote, no smell even of a peer-reviewed study, no cohort even mentioned. Just an opinion by one guy. People read this disinformation in the media and think it is science. It sometimes feels like science and evidence-based medicine died 18 months back.

machaseh · 21-07-2021 12:46pm

The republic of Ireland will be grand. Unlike where I am from (the Netherlands), there is no 'bible belt' within the Republic of Ireland. It is known that fundamentalist protestant christians are less likely to get vaccinated. I myself was born in a fundamentalist protestant christian family and even though I am not religious I am also too afraid to get vaccinated. If you have areas where loads of unvaccinated live together, that can be a problem. But the Republic doesn't have that. You might have that in Northern Ireland though (Loyalists) but those people don't tend to travel to the Republic all that much.

The thing is, the benchmark for 'herd immunity' keeps going up as new variants are introduced. We have always known that you can never get literally 100% of the population vaccinated. Never ever, even in the hypothetical scenario where a dictator would commit a gnocide on the unvaccinated there will always be some people who manage to escape.

At some point you will have to learn to live with it and let go.

If Herd Immunity Is Not Reached In Ireland

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