'Herd mentality': Trump again asserts coronavirus will just 'disappear' - USA TODAY

Doctors believe 60% to 80% of the population needs natural antibodies, or to be vaccinated, to achieve herd immunity for COVID-19.

President Donald Trump told Bob Woodward in a recorded interview that he wanted to downplay coronavirus.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump claimed Tuesday during a televised town hall that "herd mentality" could make the coronavirus "disappear" with or without a vaccine.

During a 90-minute town hall hosted by ABC News in the must win battleground of Pennsylvania, Trump defended his repeated assertion that the virus will eventually disappear even without a vaccine, citing what he called "herd mentality," an apparent reference to "herd immunity.".

"And you'll develop, you'll develop herd -- like a herd mentality.

More: Trump tells ABC in Pennsylvania town hall that he 'up played' severity of coronavirus.

Achieving Herd Immunity: How vaccines and masks are the keys to fight coronavirus.

For COVID-19, doctors believe 60% to 80% of the population needs natural antibodies, or to be vaccinated, to achieve herd immunity

The number needed to achieve herd immunity is far more, as the U.S

The White House earlier in September denied the Trump administration has ever considered a policy of "herd immunity."

Atlas has become a White House adviser on the coronavirus, and has publicly downplayed the virus. There were reports from The Washington Post that Atlas has been pushing herd immunity inside the White House, and Trump has been listening.