Scientists warn those who refuse Covid jab won’t be protected by herd immunity - this is why

Scientists are urging people not to rely on those who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 to keep them safe, as it is “pretty much impossible” for the UK to reach herd immunity.

While vaccines will allow a return to normality for large parts of society, people who have not been immunised will be at ongoing risk from coronavirus.

Vaccines won’t completely stop infection

Professor Paul Hunter and colleague Alistair Grant, from the University of East Anglia, have warned that herd immunity cannot be achieved either through natural infection, or by the rollout of the Pfizer and Oxford vaccines.

Prof Hunter said that although vaccines will make a huge difference in stopping people from getting ill and suppressing the spread of infection, they will not completely stop it.

As such, people who refused to have the vaccine will continue to be at risk.

Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, Prof Hunter said: “I think there are two key issues.

“The first is that if you are uncertain about whether you want the vaccine or not - and especially if you’re a vulnerable person - you cannot rely on the fact that your neighbours have been vaccinated so please, please, please make sure you go and be vaccinated yourself.”

The second issue is that those who have not been vaccinated will be at ongoing risk from coronavirus, so appropriate tracking and tracing systems need to be in place to identify local outbreaks and stop them.

He added: “This is something that happens in measles…particular communities with low uptake of measles vaccines can have suddenly very nasty, very severe outbreaks of measles and what you have to do is make sure we’ve got systems in place to spot these early before they become real problems for the people concerned.”

Herd immunity ‘impossible’

Prof Hunter explained that it was going to be “pretty much impossible” to reach herd immunity with the vaccines or through naturally-acquired infection.