Approaching herd immunity?

[stonefly-2]

https://english.elpais.com/society/2...ronavirus.html

Spain one the hardest hit places in the world went from 5% in May to 5.2% prevalence in June. Nowhere other than a few isolated places (prisons, bergamo, etc) is anywhere near herd immunity.

Pay no attention to the "swoosh" noise.

[Creeping Incrementalism]

I like how Ron Paul says that nature wants us to have herd immunity. Nature, it seems, wants to thin the herd. By this same logic, we should bring back polio.

We never shut down the economy or restricted the basic liberty of people's right to breathe freely, for polio.

The stories my parents tell -- polio, measles, mumps, etc.. they existed and everyone lived their normal lives for the most part. There are some exceptions of various isolated shutdowns or lock-downs, but it was nothing close to what we have today.

[TrappedinCalifornia]

My second grade teacher spent significant time in an iron lung as a kid during the polio outbreak in the 1940's; but, lived into her 90's. Today, polio is said to have been eradicated in the developed world due to vaccines. Yet, polio has not been eradicated worldwide and, given the ease of travel, it cannot be said to have been completely eradicated "in the developed world" without more narrowly defining both 'eradication' and 'developed world.'

There are a whole lot of diseases out there with no vaccine, no natural or herd immunity, and few treatments; yet we deal with them on a daily basis, particularly on a regional level. Many, maybe most, have the potential to be 'deadly' for some. Most have the potential to create long term damage in others. Zika, Hanta, Bubonic Plague, Ebola, Malaria... the list goes on. Even if a 'vaccine' exists, it doesn't guarantee one won't catch it or that the vaccine itself is effective against a given strain; i.e., which is why people cite the flu virus and vaccines in that people do die from the flu and, occasionally suffer some form of permanent, physical effects from contracting it, even after having taken the flu shot.

This is something most don't seem to grasp regarding 'herd immunity.' It's not an immunity acquired by every member of the herd and, subsequently, passed down to future generations through DNA. According to the Mayo Clinic...

How large a portion of the community needs to become immune? What is the threshold proportion allowing it to spread? How long does immunity last?

These are questions we don't have the answer to in relation to COVID-19. We are still looking. Part of the problem is that this may not be a 'naturally occurring' disease; which potentially complicates a natural response such as 'herd immunity.' It's just like an article I found in the last couple of days noting one of the differences between COVID-19 and the Spanish Flu; i.e., that the Spanish Flu disproportionately targeted the 'young' and COVID-19 disproportionately targets the 'old' in terms of fatalities.

Here's another article from an historian and a virologist, stating the same thing...

until the U.S. population gains herd immunity

Put simply, we don't know enough, yet, to accurately estimate when or if herd immunity is close or even attainable.

[baranski]

There's no money in immunity.

[AR15fan]

in your graph showing falling death rates, how many were attributed to just NYC...



wait until Miami, Dallas, Phoenix, etc start shifting into similar scenarios.

your shortsightedness is a remarkable but understandable understanding the amount of misinformation being presented by politically motivated factions.

[Creeping Incrementalism]

Ah, "2 weeks", a very old phrase on CalGuns.