[ad_1]
The director general of the World Health Organization warned on Monday of the idea that herd immunity is a realistic strategy to curb the spread of the coronavirus, noting that such proposals are “simply unethical.”
In a media briefing, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that health officials generally try to achieve herd immunity through vaccination. However, he stressed that to obtain such herd immunity to a highly contagious disease like measles, for example, about 95% of the population must be vaccinated.
“Herd immunity is achieved by protecting the population from a virus, not exposing it to it,” he said. Some specialists have argued that allowing COVID-19 to spread among the population that is not obviously vulnerable will help create herd immunity and is the most realistic way to contain the pandemic, rather than the confinements that have proven to be economically. devastating.
“Never before in the history of public health has herd immunity been used as a strategy to respond to an outbreak,” emphasized Tedros.
Tedros added that too little is known about COVID-19 immunity to determine if a group immunity can even be achieved.
No to quarantines
While Dr. David Navarro, one of the WHO specialists for the coronavirus, attacked the quarantines, something that a couple of months ago were defended by the organization itself.
“At the World Health Organization we do not advocate quarantines as the main means of controlling this virus (…) The only time we believe that a quarantine is justified is to buy time to reorganize, regroup and rebalance its resources; protect health workers who are exhausted. But in general, we prefer not to, “Navarro told the British newspaper The Spectator.
[ad_2]
