COVID Herd Immunity

The cluster discusses herd immunity in the context of COVID-19, debating whether it has been achieved, the impact of lockdowns and suppression measures on R0 and spread, and the roles of vaccines and natural infection in reaching immunity thresholds.

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Keywords

US H1N1 DE R0 IFR PIIS0140 STILL SARS ALLOWS www.rki immunity herd immunity herd infected virus measures hospitals deaths population spread

Sample Comments

scotty79 Mar 20, 2020 View on HN

Yes. But you can't expect to eradicate the disease. As measures are lifted cases start growing exponentially again.

userbinator Aug 28, 2025 View on HN

We're probably past herd immunity at this point.

moeffju Apr 28, 2020 View on HN

Aside from the fact that the jury's still out on whether infection actually confers immunity with Covid-19, the options are not just "get everyone infected" vs "eternal lockdown", you can actually suppress the disease to a level where new infections are rare and easily enough traced, or even completely absent.

Leary Mar 29, 2020 View on HN

Reaching herd immunity level is a possibility but not inevitable

garmaine Apr 25, 2020 View on HN

R0 is less than 1 already in many regions...

srtjstjsj Jul 18, 2021 View on HN

How is it "herd immunity" If the virus is still spreading (and killing)?

siberianbear May 8, 2020 View on HN

There's something that I'm not getting in all this: given the R0 for this virus, the situation isn't going to disappear until about 70% of the population has developed immunity.The purpose of all these isolation and social distancing measures is to slow down the process in order not to overwhelm hospitals. But the news reports I've been reading about hospitals is that in general, in developed countries, the hospitals aren't overwhelmed.If 70% or so haven't de

_up Dec 9, 2020 View on HN

You are infected with Media misinformation there is no expected herd immunity. This focus seems to be to reduce the severity for now.https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...

BlueTemplar Apr 6, 2021 View on HN

Wouldn't mortality rate drop off a cliff once we have herd immunity?

duxup Mar 12, 2020 View on HN

It's more about slowing the progress to spread out the number of infected over time.