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Herd immunity now seems impossible. Welcome to the age of Covid reinfection | Devi Sridhar
The virus is now embedded in our world. But there are steps we can take to keep it at bay while we continue to live our lives
What do I wish I had known in early 2020? Other than to buy shares in toilet paper, Zoom and vaccine companies, I wish I had known that a safe and effective vaccine against severe disease and death from Covid-19 would arrive within a year – and that reinfection would nevertheless become a major issue in managing the disease. These two facts would have shifted the UK government’s response, and allowed for a more unified scientific front in advising them.
At the very beginning of the pandemic, several governments – including in Sweden, Netherlands and the UK – believed the best path through this crisis was to allow a controlled spread of infections through the population, especially the young and healthy, in order to reach some static state against the virus. The idea was that “the herd” who got infected would protect a more vulnerable minority.
Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh
Join Devi Sridhar for a Guardian Live online event on Monday 25 April. She will talk to Nicola Davis about Covid-19 and the lessons we can learn from our handling of the pandemic. Book here
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