Herd Immunity
The simplest definition of Herd Immunity , Per Merriam-Webster is : a reduction in the risk of infection with a specific communicable disease (such as measles or influenza) that occurs when a significant proportion of the population has become immune to infection (as because of previous exposure or vaccination) so that susceptible individuals are much less likely to come in contact with infected individuals. I’m going to give you two additional definitions:
Eugenics: the practice or advocacy of controlled selective breeding of human populations (as by sterilization) to improve the population’s genetic composition
And
Genocide: the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group
More on those two in a bit. Now the commentary coming from members of the GOP, and the domestic terrorists trying to force the early opening of state and local governments is that the only way to get past the COVID-19 crisis is by applying a type of herd immunity by ensuring that a large part of the population are exposed to COVID-19, comparing it to the Flu, and trying to offer lives as a sacrifice to the alter of capitalism.
Johns Hopkins, as well as several other scientific and medical institutions and journals have addressed how much more devastating COVID-19 is. It is at least ten times as deadly as the common flu, and it is several times more transmissible than the flu. The virus, thus far, seems to have far reaching and long lasting impact on several aspects of the body. This is not the flu.
In order to reach herd immunity without a vaccine, we need to ensure that at least 70–90 percent of the population is infected. The population of the United States is roughly 328 Million people. So to reach 75% exposure that means roughly 246 million people need to be infected. Let’s look at the low end of the mortality rate (1–2 percent). That means 2,460,000 people will die if we try to reach herd immunity by exposure. What that figure doesn’t take into account is the fact that our healthcare system would be crippled dealing with these infections, meaning additional people will die due to lack of access to healthcare and other secondary causes.
This number will also leave us with an grotesque impact on all aspects of society. The economy would enter a large scale depression, leading to years, if not decades, of impact to common people. The fact that COVID-19 affects the poor and people of color dis-proportionally because of their lack to access to healthcare, leads to another grim scenario. The Flu, only has a .1 percent mortality rate. We also have a vaccine for the Flu that provides true herd immunity without the extreme loss of life (300,0000 deaths without the vaccine).
What people are screaming for is an inhumane cost in human lives. They know the statistics for who is more likely to be affected. They are talking about the “strength” of the immune systems for those that will survive. This mirrors discussions on Eugenics, breading out those that can’t survive the pandemic. This isn’t based on facts, COVID-19 can, and will affect the young, the rich, the poor, and people of all races.
What people are fighting for, when asking for social distancing and safety measures to be dropped, is the genocide of millions of Americans. We don’t have to let these people die. Politicians are choosing to allow these deaths, so that they can pander to greedy and heartless donors and supporters. We cannot allow this to happen. The mere suggestion of allowing this is traitorous and heartless.
SOURCES:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/herd%20immunity
https://www.jhsph.edu/covid-19/articles/achieving-herd-immunity-with-covid19.html
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eugenics
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rethinking-herd-immunity/
