Coronavirus latest: Experts trash plea for herd immunity

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They said it was understandable that restrictions had fuelled interest in it but added: “This is a dangerous fallacy unsupported by scientific evidence. Uncontrolled transmission in younger people risks significant morbidity and mortality.” The global experts include professors Susan Michie of the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies; Anthony Costello, ex-World Health Organisation director; Trisha Greenhalgh, of the University of Oxford, and Devi Sridhar, from Edinburgh.

The experts claim isolating large swathes of the population is “practically impossible and highly unethical” and such ideas had failed before.

They said it would be hard to decide who should be exposed to risk, with up to 30 percent of people in some parts of the world likely to be seen as vulnerable.

When the virus spread it would likely overwhelm healthcare.

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Their John Snow Memorandum warned: “Such a strategy would not end the Covid-19 pandemic but result in recurrent epidemics…the case with numerous infectious diseases before the advent of vaccination.”

They claim the correct approach was to continue suppressing transmission and improve responses to outbreaks

A further 19,724 coronavirus cases were confirmed in the UK yesterday, with 137 deaths.

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