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While the sharp drop in new coronavirus infections in the United States this month is an optimistic sign that he hopes to continue, former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr Scott Gottlieb said the United States might never achieve collective immunity against the virus.
Main facts
- “I don’t really think we’ll ever achieve collective immunity,” Dr Scott Gottlieb told Margaret Brennan on the show on Sunday. Face The Nation on CBS, when asked about childhood immunizations, but didn’t say why. “It won’t be like measles or smallpox, which sort of goes away. The Covid will continue to circulate at a low level ”.
- Although estimates vary as to how many Americans need to receive a vaccine or have been previously infected for the country to achieve herd immunity, Dr Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, said in December that ‘it could reach 90% of the population.
- Other studies have shown that herd immunity in the United States could be achieved as early as May if vaccinations continue to develop.
- Dr Scott Gottlieb said he was “optimistic” about the immediate future, saying that increasing vaccination rates and the fact that a third of the US population has already been infected with the coronavirus probably offers sufficient protection to continue to decrease the number of new infections, even if the population does not achieve full immunity against the virus.
- On Thursday, the seven-day moving average of new coronavirus infections fell 43% in just two weeks, a staggering figure.
- “It had a tragic effect on the United States, but I think we have to be optimistic,” said Dr. Scott Gottlieb.
The context
Some experts predict that if the United States never gets herd immunity, Covid-19 could become a seasonal virus, as re-infection of coronaviruses is very common. The number of new daily coronavirus infections and coronavirus patients in hospitals began to fall this month after the country saw an increase in cases that peaked in January, a phenomenon some experts have said. attributed to people who have traveled and met with groups outside their homes on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 28 million people in the United States have tested positive for the coronavirus, this which accounts for about a quarter of confirmed cases worldwide.
Article translated from Forbes US – Author: Carlie Porterfield
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