Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Oct;20(10):583-584.
doi: 10.1038/s41577-020-00451-5.

COVID-19 herd immunity: where are we?

Affiliations

COVID-19 herd immunity: where are we?

Arnaud Fontanet et al. Nat Rev Immunol. 2020 Oct.

Abstract

Herd immunity is a key concept for epidemic control. It states that only a proportion of a population needs to be immune (through overcoming natural infection or through vaccination) to an infectious agent for it to stop generating large outbreaks. A key question in the current COVID-19 pandemic is how and when herd immunity can be achieved and at what cost.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

A.F. and S.C. are members of the COVID-19 Scientific Council advising the French Ministry of Health.

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Salje H, et al. Estimating the burden of SARS-CoV-2 in France. Science. 2020;369:208–211. doi: 10.1126/science.abc3517. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Britton T, Ball F, Trapman P. A mathematical model reveals the influence of population heterogeneity on herd immunity to SARS-CoV-2. Science. 2020;369:846–849. doi: 10.1126/science.abc6810. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Goldstein E, Lipsitch M, Cevik M. On the effect of age on the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in households, schools and the community. medRxiv. 2020 doi: 10.1101/2020.07.19.20157362. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Byambasuren O, et al. Estimating the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infections: systematic review. medRxiv. 2020 doi: 10.1101/2020.07.13.20153163. - DOI
    1. Flaxman S, et al. Estimating the effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions on COVID-19 in Europe. Nature. 2020;584:257–261. doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2405-7. - DOI - PubMed

MeSH terms