After almost a year into quarantine, the U.S. is finally looking at a positive trend in the Coronavirus. New cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are dropping and the availability of vaccines is growing exponentially.
At this point, the country could be on its way to herd immunity, meaning there are not enough cases to let the virus spread through the population. Although this is great news, it will not happen overnight.
According to the latest federal survey, more than 66 million shots have been administered, meaning six percent of the population has been vaccinated. Manufacturers have promised that by June, everyone in the United States will have the opportunity to receive the vaccination.
On top of this, experts say that as much as 25 percent of people may already be immune to the virus because of previous cases. Researchers have also come out and said that their research could be off and that the number could be even higher.
However, some new variants threaten progress, potentially lessening the protection offered by vaccines and affecting some degree of natural immunity.
Dr. Arturo Casadevall, chair of molecular microbiology and immunology at Johns Hopkins University, was asked the question, “There’s still so much to learn about Covid-19. But if you had to put a number on it, what level of population protection is required to reach herd immunity against Covid-19?” at an interview.
Casadevall said, “I am in the 65-80% range. We all expect that this virus is not different from other viruses and that we will reach a point that a sufficient number of people are immune so that the virus cannot jump anymore. It reaches a point that there are so few hosts, so few people that it can jump to, that the epidemic crashes. The number of cases is the threat, and in the declining curve, we see that the number of people it can jump to is dropping.”
From what we have heard from experts, the future looks promising. In the next couple of months, we could be back to school and work without masks. With the promising research, it’s hard to doubt that our scientists and researchers will prevail over the year-long pandemic.
