Herd immunity and COVID-19: Experts warn against letting 'things rip' - Detroit Free Press

A debate is brewing over whether it's time to abandon efforts to contain COVID-19 and instead try for herd immunity through mass infection.

Masked University of Michigan students walk around campus in Ann Arbor on Tuesday, October 20, 2020 after Washtenaw County Health Department issued a Stay in Place order for University of Michigan undergrad students due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases on campus. (Photo: Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press).

As COVID-19 case numbers continue to go up and up and up — in Michigan and nationally — a debate is brewing about whether it's time to abandon efforts to contain the spread of the virus and instead embrace a strategy of trying to reach herd immunity through infection. .

reach herd immunity, which occurs when the vast majority of a population is immune to a disease, making the likelihood of its spread to vulnerable people less likely.

But because there is no coronavirus vaccine on the market yet, the only way to reach herd immunity would be to allow COVID-19 to spread unchecked through the population — infecting most of the nation's 330 million people, and likely hospitalizing and killing millions along the way. .

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says vulnerable populations would be at risk if a herd immunity strategy is tried. (Photo: AP).

"And if you talk to anybody who has any experience in epidemiology and infectious diseases, they will tell you that that is risky, and you'll wind up with many more infections of vulnerable people, which will lead to hospitalizations and deaths." .

Yet it's a strategy endorsed by a group of infectious diseases doctors and epidemiologists who signed the Great Barrington Declaration earlier this month, calling for young, healthy people to resume life as usual while urging older people with chronic conditions that put them at higher risk of complications or death from COVID-19 to stay home.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services reported 1,479 adults were hospitalized statewide Monday with COVID-19 or // suspected COVID-19 cases, as were 10 children.

That's more than double the number of people who were hospitalized with coronavirus two weeks ago in Michigan, when the Michigan Health and Hospital Association reported that hospitalizations already were up 80% in the state. .

Department of Health and Human Services, said "herd immunity is not the strategy of the U.S.

Department of Health and Human Service Secretary Alex Azar speaks during a COVID-19 briefing at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarter campus in Atlanta, Wednesday, Oct.

Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, said the idea of pursuing herd immunity through infection is not "a viable or smart option."

And as many as 40% of Americans have pre-existing health conditions that put them at high risk for severe illness from COVID-19 or death, Malani said, noting that even when people survive the disease, many are reporting lingering long-term health problems. 

"You can go for a herd immunity, but the question is at what expense and how many people are we going to let die before we develop the herd immunity?" he asked. 

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization warned against the idea that herd immunity might be a realistic strategy to stop the pandemic, dismissing such proposals as "unethical." At a press briefing on Monday, Oct

12, 2020, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said health officials typically aim to achieve herd immunity _ where the entire population is protected from a virus when the majority are immune _ by vaccination