Originally Posted by
SimonT007
You might be right about mask wearing and herd immunity. But how do you define when herd immunity has been reached? For instance, we have learned to live with 20k to 60k deaths every year from influenza, do we have herd immunity from the flu? I'm not sure i know the answer to that.
We do not have herd immunity from the flu. An example of a disease for which we have herd immunity is polio. You see very few cases of it, because most people are immune through vaccination, and this stops the disease from spreading freely except in rare cases of outbreaks among typically unvaccinated individuals. The flu vaccine uptake in the USA is typically under 50-60% on a yearly basis. Flu also has many other natural harbors it can reside in and move freely between humans, increasing its effective population size.
I read an interesting article on CNBC yesterday from Gottleib suggesting (in his opinion) that indoor mask mandates should be dropped very soon. His reasoning was that public health entities need to keep credibility and have the flexibility to re-introduce mandates with a data-backed rationale, should COVID spike again this winter, as many suspect it might.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/06/gott...dates-now.html
I don't think this will trickle into mass transit/airlines policy, but it would be good for local municipalities to consider in their strategies.