Coronavirus: WHO warns of hypothetical "collective immunity"

Text by: Jérémie Lanche

Is group immunity, or collective immunity, a credible solution in the fight against Covid-19? The principle is to let the virus spread in the population so that they can develop antibodies. Great Britain thought of it, before backing off. Sweden and the Netherlands seem to be preparing for it. WHO is sounding the alarm: there is no indication that group immunity is working. Or that she is very human.

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From our correspondent in Geneva,

“  In animal epidemiology, we are worried about the overall well-being of the herd, a single animal does not count. Humans are not animals.  "

"Herd immunity" is the term, in English, for collective immunity. The expression bounces the head of emergency operations at WHO, Mike Ryan. For him, this hypothesis does not hold. Already, because we still do not know if the people who were sick of Covid-19 are really immune and for how long.

And also because in addition to being risky, the strategy of collective immunity would not be ethical: "  This idea which consists in saying that the countries which have taken the least restrictive measures, these countries will by miracle reach a collective immunity, and too bad if some elderly people die in the meantime ... This is a calculation which is really very very dangerous,  "says Mike Ryan.

► Read also: Coronavirus: WHO questions the merits of "immune passports"

And it is this calculation that scares the WHO. Because contrary to what studies suggested at the beginning of the pandemic, the number of cases considered as serious could be higher in proportion with fewer asymptomatic cases than expected. If the disease spreads without any control, the number of deaths could be counted in millions. Today it is just under 280,000.

► Read also: Covid-19: WHO fears up to 190,000 deaths in Africa

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