LONDON: Managing COVID-19 by allowing herd immunity to develop in low-risk populations while protecting the most vulnerable is “a dangerous fallacy unsupported by the scientific evidence,” warn an international group of 80 researchers in an open letter.
The letter, published in The Lancet journal, referred to by its authors as the John Snow Memorandum, noted that any pandemic management strategy relying upon the population to develop immunity from natural infections for COVID-19 is flawed.
In the face of a second wave of infection in several parts of the world, the scientists including Devi Sridhar from the University of Edinburgh in the UK, said there is currently renewed interest in herd immunity approaches allowing a large uncontrolled outbreak in low-risk populations while protecting the vulnerable.
While some have argued this approach could lead to the development of infection-acquired immunity in the low-risk population, which will eventually protect the vulnerable, the researchers explained such uncontrolled transmission in younger people risks significant ill-health and death. (AGENCIES)
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