{"id":54695,"date":"2021-08-06T13:07:20","date_gmt":"2021-08-06T11:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/?p=54695"},"modified":"2021-08-06T13:10:46","modified_gmt":"2021-08-06T11:10:46","slug":"covid-19-herd-immunity-is-not-going-to-happen-prof-shabir-madhi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/covid-19-herd-immunity-is-not-going-to-happen-prof-shabir-madhi\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID -19 Herd immunity is not going to happen: Prof Shabir Madhi"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"By Annisa Essack
\n<\/strong>06:08:2021<\/strong><\/p>\n

Herd or population immunity became the buzz words when the COVID-19 vaccine was made available to the world. The world then raced to ensure that at least two-thirds of their citizens would be vaccinated to curb the spread of the coronavirus and eventually see the virus eradicated.<\/p>\n

But that belief has been shot down by Prof Shabir Madhi, the dean of the health sciences facility and professor of vaccinology at Wits.<\/p>\n

Prof. Madhi joined Ml. Sulaiman Ravat on Radio Islam International to discuss why the notion of herd immunity has fallen by the wayside.<\/p>\n

His reasoning behind this is that as the SARS-CoV-2 virus is spread through the airborne route, its ability to mutate over a short period has resulted in it being more transmissible and more able to evade immune responses. This means that the current tools available to fight the evolving virus are inadequate.<\/p>\n

Prof. Madhi says learning to live with the virus is the best option, mainly because the vaccines created will allow us to do this without getting to the herd immunity threshold.<\/p>\n

Prof Madhi said: “If we can get 80 to\u00a0 90 per cent of people, even above the age of 35, vaccinated, we can get back to a normal lifestyle.” In his view, this could be achieved in SA with 20-million people vaccinated \u2013 not the 40 million target set by the government.<\/p>\n

We will continue to experience mini outbreaks of COVID-19. Still, it would ensure a threshold guaranteeing our healthcare systems wouldn’t be overwhelmed and that people would not die in large numbers.<\/p>\n

Citing the UK as a good example, close to\u00a085% of adults have already received at least a single dose of the vaccine. As a result, they’re able to remove almost all restrictions, which has seen very nominal changes when it comes to hospitalisation and death.<\/p>\n

In fact, the vast majority of people (97%) who still end up being hospitalised and dying of Covid in the UK are those who decided not to be vaccinated.<\/p>\n

Responding to the question about the vaccine program, Prof Madhi says that although anti-vaxxers have been prominent, most people have been amenable to being vaccinated. The challenge lies in keeping the momentum going.<\/p>\n

Referring to those who may be sceptical about being vaccinated, Prof. Madhi said: “It is in everyone’s interest to be vaccinated. And, even if you don’t believe in a vaccine, you should at least provide some level of protection to others in your household. Especially those who are vaccinated but may not mount a good immune response due to some medical condition. They depend on the vast majority of people to be vaccinated for their own protection as well.”<\/p>\n

For South Africans, then the writing is on the wall. To move forward to a semblance of normal, vaccination is the priority. Secondly, remember that just as we learnt to live with the influenza virus, the coronavirus, too, is here to stay.<\/p>\n

Listen to the podcast here.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Annisa Essack 06:08:2021 Herd or population immunity became the buzz words when the COVID-19 vaccine was made available to the world. The world then raced to ensure that at least two-thirds of their citizens would be vaccinated to curb the spread of the coronavirus and eventually see the virus eradicated. But that belief has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[34,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","category-podcasts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/HerdImmunity.jpg?fit=319%2C158&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-eeb","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-17 15:16:39","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}