The bumpy road to achieve herd immunity in COVID-19.

ABSTRACT

Herd immunity is a form of indirect protection that is offered to the community when a large proportion of individuals contained in the community are immune to a certain infection. This immunity can be due to vaccination or to the recovery post-disease. Effective herd immunity in SARS-CoV-2 infection has several hurdles upon achievement. Herd immunity cannot be obtained concomitantly in many geographical areas because the areas have different population density and the societal measures to contain the spreading are different. A proportion of 50-66% of the population needs to be immunized naturally or artificially in this SARS-Cov2 pandemic and this percentage is not easily achievable. The duration of herd immunity is another issue while information on the long-term immune response against SARS-CoV2 is yet scarce. Epitope stability, another issue to be solved when achieving herd immunity, is important. Mutation in the viral structure will call upon other sets of neutralizing antibodies and hence for other herd immunity type installment. The societal tactics to achieve the much-needed herd immunity should be developed keeping in mind the welfare of the population. Without being exhaustive, throughout our paper we will elaborate on each of the hurdles encountered in developing herd immunity to SARS-Cov2 infection.