The idea of stopping the virus by achieving herd immunity is a dangerous mistake, not supported by any scientific evidence.
Keeping the spread of the virus under control - putting in place rules to be respected - is the best way to protect society and the economy until the arrival of effective therapies and vaccines and avoid new lockdowns.
It is the unanimous voice of 80 scientists from all over the world and of various scientific skills including epidemiologists, pediatricians, virologists, psychologists, who have drafted the open letter 'John Snow Memorandum', published in The Lancet;
the letter will also be presented at the 16th World Congress on Public Health program 2020.
The approach of achieving herd immunity, they write, is fallacious and costly in terms of human and economic lives and would still not stop the virus, which would return several times in new repeated waves; also because there is increasing evidence that post-infection immunity to SARS-CoV-2 lasts only a few months from infection, then disappears and the risk of reinfection is not remote. "Effective virus transmission control measures are urgently needed, coupled with social and economic programs to help the most vulnerable and fight the inequities amplified by the pandemic," the scientists write.
