ACHIEVING herd immunity through vaccines being used now against the coronavirus disease may no longer be feasible because of the emergence of COVID-19 variants, an infectious disease expert said yesterday.
Dr Edsel Salvaña, at the “Laging Handa” public briefing, said while the current vaccines are effective in preventing severe COVID and deaths, their 90 percent efficacy in preventing infection before the variants emerged has now dropped to “30 to 40 percent.”
“The herd immunity that people think about, wherein they can no longer get infected, it is not achievable with the current vaccines that we have,” he said.
The most recent variants of COVID-19 are the Delta and Omicron variants which are highly transmissible. Omicron sub-variants have also emerged.
Salvaña said even if all are vaccinated, a “sterilized immunity” cannot be achieved because there will still be breakthrough infections, referring to fully vaccinated individuals who still get infected with COVID-19.
Salvaña also said breakthrough infections may lead to one getting “hybrid immunity” or one brought about by both COVID-19 vaccine and infection.
“That kind of immunity is actually the most durable and effective. When comparing those unvaccinated but were infected and those vaccinated and had breakthrough infection, their immunity is way more with hybrid immunity,” said Salvaña.
As of the latest data, some 65.17 million individuals have been fully-vaccinated against COVID-19, while 11.53 million have received their booster shots.
Government targeted herd immunity when it launched the national COVID-19 vaccination program on March 1 last year. The government aims to fully vaccinate 77 million by the end of this month to cover 70 percent of the population.
Last week, the government said it is expecting fewer people to go to vaccination sites because of the already high vaccination rate. It said vaccinees may reach only five million to six million this month, the lowest since a decline in the vaccination rate started in December last year.
