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When I heard about Britain’s ‘herd immunity’ coronavirus plan, I thought it was satire This article is more than 9 months old Vulnerable people should not be exposed to Covid-19 right now in the service of a hypothetical future • Sun 15 Mar 2020 12.33 GMT Last modified on Wed 1 Jul 2020 18.15 BST Patients in a temporary overflow building at Brescia hospital, Italy.
‘In Italy, the choices of whom to save and whom to allow to die are real.’ Photograph: Miguel Medina/AFP via Getty Images Y our house is on fire, and the people whom you have trusted with your care are not trying to put it out.
Britain goes it alone over coronavirus.
The stated aim has been to achieve “herd immunity” in order to manage the outbreak and prevent a catastrophic “second wave” next winter – even if Matt Hancock has tried to put that .
A large proportion of the population is at lower risk of developing severe disease: roughly speaking anyone up to the age of 40.
So the reasoning goes that even though in a perfect world we’d not want anyone to take the risk of infection, generating immunity in younger people is a way of protecting the population as a whole.
Play Video 1:05 WHO director general: Europe is now at centre of coronavirus pandemic – video We talk about vaccines generating herd immunity, so why is this different?