COVID-19 herd immunity isn’t happening any time soon
Pandemics cannot rage forever. At some point, it’s likely that COVID-19 will eventually run out of easy targets to infect. (Pexels/)When the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 first appeared late in 2019, it found itself faced with an all-you-can-infect buffet. Although the virus had likely been circulating in animals for quite some time, it was new to human beings. None of us were immune, and that—combined with other characteristics such as its contagiousness in people who don’t realize they’re sick—has allowed the virus to sweep around the world.But pandemics cannot rage forever, even if it might not feel that way right now. At some point, it’s likely that COVID-19 will eventually run out of easy targets to infect. When enough people become immune to an infectious disease, everyone in the population—whether we’re talking about a village, a city, or a country—has some protection from catching it, says Shane Crotty, an immunologist...