Dr. Anthony Fauci warned in a recent interview that the United States could see a staggering death toll from the coronavirus if the country allows infections to rise in the hope of achieving herd immunity.
What’s going on?
- Fauci spoke with actor Matthew McConaughey in a live interview session Thursday, CNN reports.
- He said herd immunity — when a community becomes immune to a virus after 70 to 90% of the community suffers it through infection or recovery, according to the New York Post — could lead to a huge death toll.
If everyone contracted it, even with the relatively high percentage of people without symptoms … a lot of people are going to die.
You look at the United States of America with our epidemic of obesity as it were. With the number of people with hypertension. With the number of people with diabetes. If everyone got infected, the death toll would be enormous and totally unacceptable.
However ...
- People who had COVID-19 may not be completely immune to the virus, which raises instant questions about whether the herd immunity idea would actually work, according to CNN.
- Multiple reports from the last few weeks suggest people who had COVID-19 received antibodies to battle the virus. But those antibodies later disappear within a few months time.