CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The state’s top health official on Friday rejected the concept of “herd immunity” as a way to deal with the increasingly prevalent coronavirus in Illinois.
Herd immunity generally means the majority of the population has become immune to a disease because they’ve been infected or vaccinated, and so infections slow down or cease.
The question posed to Dr. Ezike Ngozi of the Illinois Department of Public Health: What if the state accepted a strategy of herd immunity while protecting the most vulnerable populations against the potentially deadly COVID virus? Currently there is no vaccine or failsafe therapeutic.
Ngozi said the state has already racked up more than 10,000 deaths due to coronavirus, with roughly 5% to 10% of the Illinois population having been infected.
It might take 60% of the state’s population getting infected — and thousands more deaths — to reach herd immunity, she estimated.
“I dare say that’s not a moral way to approach this, to think that we would sacrifice that many lives to get to that ‘herd immunity,’” Ngozi said at the Pritzker administration’s latest news briefing on COVID-19.
Gov. JB Pritzker left open the possibility of reviving tighter restrictions in response to the second wave that has hit Illinois and the nation.
The Illinois Department of Public Health reported a new daily high number of cases — 10,376 cases, including 49 deaths.
Illinois had bent the curve of new infections over the summer, but the positivity rate has again hit near-double digits.
Health officials have urged residents to rethink their Thanksgiving plans amid the current resurgence, saying anyplace outside an individual’s home represents a potential risk.
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