How to Understand “Herd Immunity” in COVID-19 Pandemic
Yuanqing Xia, Lumin Zhong, Jing-Cong Tan, Zhiruo Zhang, Jiajun Lyu, Yiting Chen, Anda Zhao, Lili Huang, Zichong Long, Ningning Liu, Hui Wang, Shenghui Li
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a global threat. Through rapid and effective surveillance and control, the newly confirmed patients have been fluctuated at a very low level and imported case explained most of them through March, 2020 to the present, indicating China's response has achieved a stage victory. By contrast, the epidemic of COVID-19 in other countries out of China is bursting. Different countries are adopting varied response strategy in terms of their public health system to prevent the spread. Herd immunity has been a hot topic since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. Can it be a possible strategy to combat COVID-19? To fully interpret the knowledge regarding the term upon the background of COVID-19-related health crisis, we aim to systematically review the definition, describe the effective measures of acquiring herd immunity, and discuss its feasibility in COVID-19 prevention. Findings from this review would promote and strengthen the international cooperation and joint efforts when confronting with COVID-19.