Initially, the plan was to wait for 80% of the population to have antibodies- and then herd immunity would kick in and turn the pandemic into an endemic.
(Antibodies from being vaccinated or recovered from Covid).
Many people are getting infected with Covid, despite having been vaccinated in the UK. Hospital cases are now starting to increase again.
The UK has around 70% of the population vaccinated with at least one dose, and around 50% of the population totally vaccinated.
Yet the Indian variant is growing as fast now in the 3rd wave - as at any stage before vaccines.
The speed of growth raises serious questions about the efficiency of the vaccines.
It is not clear if AstraZeneca or/and Pfizer are responsible for being so ineffective in preventing transmissions, as well as symptoms.
Or if it is just the Indian variant that is getting around one or both of these vaccines.
If people can get Covid again from a different variant, and the vaccines just become outdated to new variants- will the herd ever achieve immunity?
There could never be more than 80% of the population with antibodies that would combat new variants.
It could mean that at some stage all of us will get Covid, and perhaps more than once.
The new flu... The only positive upside is that Covid has defeated the traditional flu...