THE US’s top infectious disease expert has warned that anti-vaxxers could prevent the nation from reaching herd immunity as three coronavirus vaccines are entering clinical trials.
Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN that herd immunity is not likely given the combination of people opposed to vaccinations and a COVID-19 vaccine that may not be completely effective.
“The best we’ve ever done is measles, which is 97 to 98 percent effective,” Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the television channel on Friday.
“That would be wonderful if we get there. I don’t think we will. I would settle for [a] 70, 75 percent effective vaccine.”
Fauci said it is “unlikely” that two-thirds of Americans taking a vaccine that is 70 to 75 percent effective would bring the nation to herd immunity, which happens when enough people are immune to stop widespread outbreaks.
His comments came after a CNN poll in mid-May found that two-thirds of Americans would try to get a coronavirus vaccine if it were low in cost and widely distributed.
That leaves one-third of Americans who are presumably anti-vaxxers and against getting vaccinated.
“There is a general anti-science, anti-authority, anti-vaccine feeling among some people in this country—an alarmingly large percentage of people, relatively speaking,” said Fauci, who sits on the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
Due to the sizeable contingent of anti-vaxxers, Fauci said “it’s not going to be easy” to educate people about vaccines and “we have a lot of work to do.”
Fauci claimed that the government has a program to educate anti-vaxxers and that the message needs to come from respected figures like community heroes and sports stars.
But US Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Michael Caputo did not confirm to CNN that a vaccine education is in place.
The CNN poll last month found that the majority of Americans would get a coronavirus vaccine, across party lines.
However, Democrats and independents were more likely to want to get the shot at 81 percent and 64 percent, respectively, compared to Republicans at only 51 percent.
The poll was conducted from May 7 to 10 with a random sampling of 1,112 adults nationwide and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
While Fauci cast doubt on achieving herd immunity given the anti-vaccine movement, others are more optimistic.
Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said small pockets of anti-vaxxers are unlikely to stop coronavirus containment efforts unlike a highly contagious disease requiring 90 percent herd immunity like the measles, according to Axios.
