It\u0027s much more practical — and possible — to aim for a level of immunity where people can lead normal lives without the interference of the virus, experts say
Jane Heffernan, a York University professor specializing in disease modelling and mathematical epidemiology, concurred that herd immunity in the sense of eliminating the virus is likely off the table now.Article content
“I think that there should be less stress on herd immunity, and more stress on just maintaining high levels of immunity that protect people,” Heffernan said. “What we really want to strive for is a distribution of immunity in the population such that we’re minimizing healthcare demand. I really don’t think that it’s feasible for us to achieve resistance.”
“It’s not a straightforward question,” Tam said. “As a ballpark, a virus that has a reproduction number of somewhere between five and six, which is what the Delta variant might be in certain contexts, then you need to achieve at least 80 per cent of total population immunity. That’s not the eligible population over the age of 12, but 80 per cent of total population.”Article content
Colijn said that with the modelling work she’s done in B.C., she’s optimistic we’re not far off from a level of sustainable immunity that gets us back to relatively normal lives. But she said we’ll likely have to live with public health measures such as mask mandates for a while yet, and she would also like to see Canada more fully embracing rapid testing as a ubiquitous screening tool.
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