Originally posted by fjlip
View Post
The 60% claim was based on a sample of 28,000 serum tests in New Delhi. New Delhi metro area has a population of about 24 million people. And country wide India has 1.3 billion people. So that is a pretty small sample size to make a claim of herd immunity. No question there are areas in India which had very high infection rates but testing only those areas for antibodies does not mean herd immunity can be declared for the country. Phase three testing did last month found only 20-25% of those tested carried antibodies.
Second, the same claim was made about Manaus Brazil last summer. Extremely hard hit, with many deaths per day. But by fall the number of cases and deaths were falling and antibody testing showed 59% so herd immunity was declared. But cases spiked in December and January again due to new variants.
And many of you declared Sweden had achieved herd immunity last spring when they did not lock down yet they went through the same increase in Covid this fall as countries that did lock down and in fact had to lock down themselves.
And a number of posters claimed Covid would be over last fall in the US. That the death rate at 150,000 had topped out and there would be no more deaths. Yet here we are in February with deaths reaching 500,000 now.
And while you rejoice in a 70% drop in cases and deaths in the US, the actual case numbers are still higher than it was at its peak in the first wave last spring. Perhaps the falling numbers are simply reflective of people taking more precautions, more wearing masks, and vaccines as much as herd immunity.
https://chinamedicals.org/2021/02/02/india-archieved-herd-immunity-after-60-covid-19-infected/ https://chinamedicals.org/2021/02/02/india-archieved-herd-immunity-after-60-covid-19-infected/
https://www.ndtv.com/video/news/fighting-covid-19-in-conversation-with-dr-randeep-guleria/covid-cases-in-india-herd-immunity-in-india-is-a-myth-says-aiims-director-dr-randeep-guleria-576466 https://www.ndtv.com/video/news/fighting-covid-19-in-conversation-with-dr-randeep-guleria/covid-cases-in-india-herd-immunity-in-india-is-a-myth-says-aiims-director-dr-randeep-guleria-576466
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-56037565 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-56037565
Comment