‘COVID IS HERE TO STAY’: Herd immunity less attainable now, says Forbes; vaccination still encouraged – EyeWitness News

NASSAU, BAHAMAS The concept of herd immunity once represented the endgame of the coronavirus pandemic, but according to a local health expert, that threshold is less attainable or relevant given the nature of the virus and persistent vaccine hesitancy.

In an interview with Eyewitness News, Director of the National HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Programme Dr Nikkiah Forbes said experts have found that COVID behaves similarly to other respiratory viruses such as the flu, which has countless strains that can re-infect individuals.

Like the flu, Forbes said COVID is here to stay.

The concept that there would be no COVID because of herd immunity is not likely to happen.

Dr Nikkiah Forbes

Asked if the concept of herd immunity was less relevant given what is now known about the virus, Forbes said: Yes and no. Yes, the concept that there would be no COVID because of herd immunity is not likely to happen.

In the beginning, when we first heard about this virus, we knew there were other viruses like this that no longer became a problem for humanity. SARS and MERS-CoV, they disappeared.

The idea that you could do something and we could get it to go away was an early concept and that is not veering out.

That is no longer realistic. COVID is here to stay.

Now, this is what we have achieved. We are in a much different place than when COVID first came to the world.

With vaccines and additional therapies, COVID if you are vaccinated and optimize your vaccination through boosters, for example, that COVID could have the severity or it could be somewhere in the severity between a cold and a flu, and you wont die from it.

So, were in a much better position.

When there were no vaccines and therapeutic modalities, people were dying from COVID more than five million, nearly six million from COVID alone, not to mention those people who died with COVID.

That was a challenge. We had no immunity, either natural or through vaccines, and so COVID was a serious health problem and still can be

Forbes said immunity is better with all the scientific advancements that have been made.

When COVID-19 vaccines became available on the international market within the first year of the pandemic, there was a widely held view that once 70 to 80 percent of the population received the jab, there would be herd immunity protection against spread of the virus.

With vaccines and additional therapiesCOVID could have the severity or it could be somewhere in the severity between a cold and a flu, and you wont die from it.

Dr Nikkiah Forbes

But international health agencies, including the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have noted that without global uptake of the vaccine, variants will continue to emerge.

More than 40 percent of The Bahamas population has been fully vaccinated.

Nearly two years since the onset of the pandemic, existing vaccines have held up, with strong protection against severe illness and death, though health experts have recommended a booster shot for additional protection and up to a fourth COVID jab for the immunocompromised for better immune response against the virus.

Data on COVID patients at Princess Margaret Hospital have evidenced this, with 95 percent of those hospitalized being unvaccinated individuals, according to the latest report.

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'COVID IS HERE TO STAY': Herd immunity less attainable now, says Forbes; vaccination still encouraged - EyeWitness News