Fauci Warns Against Fixating On Herd Immunity

Dr. Anthony Fauci warned Monday against fixating on herd immunity and said the focus should be on vaccinating as many people as possible.

“We should not get so fixated on this elusive number of herd immunity,” Fauci said during a coronavirus press briefing. “We should just be concerned about getting as many people vaccinated as quickly as we possibly can because herd immunity is still somewhat of an elusive number.”

Fauci said previous projections he made about reaching approximately 70 to 85% herd immunity were speculation.

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Fauci said on March 10 during a press briefing that around 70 to 85% herd immunity may occur “somewhere by the end of the summer and the early fall.”

“We anticipate, and again it’s purely a speculation, that the herd immunity level will be about 70 to 85%,” Fauci said. “And that’s the time that we believe, if you look at the planned rollout of the vaccines, that we would hopefully get to that point somewhere by the end of the summer and the early fall.”

President Joe Biden announced on March 10 that the U.S. agreed to buy 100 million more doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The vaccines are an addition to the 100 million the company promised to supply the government by summer 2021.

Biden said on March 2 the U.S. is scheduled to have vaccines available for all American adults by the end of May 2021.