On the other side
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/experts-slam-dangerous-fallacy-of-virus-herd-immunity-1.5146182
Proponents of allowing the new coronavirus to circulate among populations in the hope of achieving herd immunity are promoting a "dangerous fallacy" devoid of scientific proof, dozens of health experts said Thursday.
In an open letter published in The Lancet medical journal, more than 80 specialists from universities across the world said that the only effective way of limiting excess deaths during the pandemic was to control the disease's spread.
The second wave has also led to a renewed interest in so-called herd immunity, which suggests allowing a large uncontrolled outbreak among people considered to be at low risk of death or serious illness from the virus.
The health experts listed numerous flaws in the concept. Firstly, "uncontrolled transmission in younger people risks significant morbidity and mortality across the whole population," the letter said. This would have a catastrophic human and financial cost, besides overwhelming healthcare systems.
The authors also noted that it is possible to become reinfected with Covid-19. Herd immunity offers no guarantee that those who caught the virus would remain immune to it for any meaningful length of time.
This would present a risk to vulnerable populations for "the indefinite future", the authors said. Such a strategy would result in "recurrent epidemics" of COVID-19 similar to those caused by numerous infectious diseases before vaccines were invented.
"It would also place an unacceptable burden on the economy and healthcare workers, many of whom have died from COVID-19 or experienced trauma as a result of having to practise disaster medicine," they wrote.
The World Health Organization has been warning for months that herd immunity for COVID-19 was impossible without untold casualties. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the concept was "unethical." "The vast majority of people in most countries remain susceptible to this virus," he said. "Letting the virus circulate unchecked therefore means allowing unnecessary infections, suffering and death."
WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan warned back in May that any country pursuing herd immunity were making "a really dangerous calculation."
And lets not forget that surviving covid-19 is only part of the story
https://bc.ctvnews.ca/three-quarters-of-hospitalized-covid-19-patients-have-symptoms-months-later-ubc-study-1.5145725
Dozens of people in the Vancouver area who were previously hospitalized with COVID-19 have been tracked by UBC researchers, who found the majority are still reporting symptoms months after their initial illness.
Of the study's 78 participants, 76 per cent reported changes to their quality of life, including weakness, problems sleeping, anxiety and shortness of breath.
“When we did breathing tests for people three months after symptom onset, over half of those patients had abnormality in their breathing test,” said lead author Dr. Alyson Wong. “When we looked at follow-up imaging and we did CT scans ... three months after symptom onset, 88 percent of patients had persistent abnormalities, which was much higher than what we were expecting.”
Btw even if the ifr is 'only' 0.27%, that's still another 9 million deaths before we maybe reach herd immunity with half the population having been exposed to covid-19. Meanwhile, according to my dad, The Netherlands is suspending medical procedures again to make room for covid hospitalizations. The cases are rising dramatically there. Herd immunity is not the way out of this.
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