"COVID19 and Herd Immunity"

 

"COVID19 and Herd Immunity"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

"Kung sa bagay Ok din naman na magkaroon lahat ng COVID19. Meron kasi tinatawag na Herd Immunity."

This was one of the things that I read as I scanned through a group chat of MTG players. The speaker is a Doctor that people trust in the community(as far as I could tell from the other peoples reactions in the group chat).

This happened a few months back and I felt a little bit of regret at not correcting this dangerous assumption.

Herd Immunity during that time according to the CDC can only be achieved by having the 90-95% of country's population infected with the deadly virus.

While a lot of people hope that this will help in the long run there are two inherent problems with this.

1) In the course of reaching this 90-95% infection rate 2% will  die(this is according to the statistics of those who have died from COVID19). Sure 2% seems like a small number. During that time there was only a 1000 deaths contributed to COVID19 in the Philippines. As of now our current population stands at 109,581,078. Roughly 110 Million people. And if you infect 90-95% , 2% is 220000. And that is something that you do not want on your hands now.

2) The other problem is that early studies have shown that there is no lasting immunity to COVID19. There are emerging cases of reinfection as I write this now. And there have been cases that there are no longer traces IgG in a persons system which makes them vulnerable again. Plus the new strains of the virus that have now been identified. So even if we succeed in infecting our population and have those deaths as sacrificial lambs there is no sure way of knowing if herd immunity will work.

I am hoping that this person has already updated himself by now. And that he had corrected himself and those that he had spread false or misguided information. In today's world , words are still powerful. And if people trust you , you can either lead people to healthier lives or to their deaths.

I am glad that I have written this today. I am sad that I did not have the strength to write it before. It is not ok for everyone to have this virus. Many are no longer among us. And many may also be lost before we find answers. I hope that people will be more careful with what they say especially those who may believe them easily without their own research.