Herd Immunity

The flu season comes and goes. It mutates in many forms. It makes people sick. Tens of millions people get sick, miss work and other obligations. They infect others and they lose time with disrupted routines. We research the flu viruses continually. We seek vaccines to lessen their impact. We manufacture hopeful vaccines that will help society cope with the next season of flu bugs.

They seem to work. We have lessened the impact of common flu. We have not ended the flu, nor have we avoided all deaths from the flu. But we continue to do what we can to lower the human toll of the highly changing disease.

We do not have herd immunity from the flu.

We are trying to gain herd immunity from COVID-19 because it is more deadly than the flu. Until that happens, surely there will be a COVID-20. And COVID-21, etc.

We will not stop researching the means to lessen COVID’s grip on our society. Until everyone is vaccinated, we cannot count on herd immunity. Because of that we will continue to be bedeviled by the disease and encounter death among our weakest.

Why some people do not get vaccinated is a mystery to most of us. They do not feel an obligation to the rest of us to be a part of the solution rather than a part of the continuing problem. They fear the vaccine and the science that produced it. They fear human error and fallibility. They put on a face of courage to avoid the vaccine as a duty they are called to do. It is a false front. The bald truth is they fear losing their individuality.

The rest of us dare to face that threat so we can move on to live our lives as normally as possible. We wish to continue creating, loving and living as best as possible. We learn to live with fear and surpass it for that which comes after it.

Meanwhile, herd immunity is a distant promise that may never happen. Of course, if we vaccinated hordes are right, the unvaccinated will perish in time and cull the herd of the weakest. Darwin will have won again.

He usually does.

May 6, 2021