CLEVELAND — With a number of vaccines nearing delivery, you may be asking yourself how many people need to be vaccinated in order to end the coronavirus pandemic?
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In a recent post, the Cleveland Clinic Health Essentials blog is here to help answer your questions.
"A vaccinated person acts as a barrier to slow and prevent the virus from continuing to spread. The ultimate end goal is to get as many people vaccinated as possible so that more people are protected," writes Serpil Erzurum, MD, Chair of the Lerner Research Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. "The entire population benefits from a high vaccination coverage."
In order to reach the herd immunity threshold, the population of vaccinated people needs to reach a point where the disease is no longer likely to spread.
"The estimate for COVID-19 is that 50 to 80% of the population will need to be vaccinated to reach the herd immunity threshold," Dr. Erzurum continues.
Comparatively, herd immunity is reached between 33 and 44% vaccinated for the regular flu.
According to Dr. Erzurum, the current estimate to reach the herd immunity threshold for COVID-19 doesn't account for the 95% effectiveness of the current vaccine front runners.
When all is said and done, the more who receive the vaccination, the better.
"It's a safer place to live when you have a high vaccination rate and we hope that everyone will take the vaccine when it's available to them," Dr. Erzurum concludes.
