{"id":5492,"date":"2021-03-02T18:30:16","date_gmt":"2021-03-02T18:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?p=5492"},"modified":"2021-03-02T18:01:31","modified_gmt":"2021-03-02T18:01:31","slug":"herd-immunity-is-unlikely-with-virus-variants-professor-madhi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/herd-immunity-is-unlikely-with-virus-variants-professor-madhi","title":{"rendered":"Herd immunity is unlikely with virus variants \u2013 Professor Madhi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – South-Africa<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Cape Town \u2013 The government aims to vaccinate about 40 million people or 67% of the population to achieve herd immunity, however, a top vaccinologist said the notion of herd immunity is unlikely as virus variants could evolve and build a resistance to vaccines.<\/p>\n

Professor of vaccinology at Wits University, Shabir Madhi, said during a Wits Business School Leadership webinar, that the country should recalibrate its response to the Covid-19 pandemic and its expectation of vaccines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe notion of herd immunity is unlikely and it needs to be realised.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat itself is not a disaster, because what we need to come to appreciate is that Covid-19 is not going to go away, even if we have \u2018next generation\u2019 vaccines,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Herd immunity, or population immunity, is when a large part of the population of an area is immune to a specific disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other big unknown in terms of a resurgence, is whether the virus will undergo even further evolution which makes it even more resistant to the Covid-19 vaccines that are available,\u201d said Madhi.<\/p>\n

South Africa launched its vaccine rollout last month as part of an implementation study through a partnership between the SA Medical Research Council and the National Department of Health.<\/p>\n

More than 70 000 health workers in the country have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine under the Sisonke Early Access Programme.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it be the Johnson and Johnson vaccine or the Pfizer vaccine, they will all have a knockout effect in terms of their ability to protect significantly mild to moderate infection.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly the Novacax vaccine has shown ability to protect against mild to moderate infection,\u2019 said Madhi.<\/p>\n

\u201cCovid-19 is here to stay, for the rest of our lifetimes probably.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe focus really needs to be centred around trying to minimise severe disease so that we can protect our healthcare services and try to reduce the number of people that die from the virus,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

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

Africa-Press – South-Africa. Cape Town \u2013 The government aims to vaccinate about 40 million people or 67% of the population to achieve herd immunity, however, a top vaccinologist said the notion of herd immunity is unlikely as virus variants could evolve and build a resistance to vaccines. Professor of vaccinology at Wits University, Shabir Madhi, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":5491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-5492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nHerd immunity is unlikely with virus variants \u2013 Professor Madhi - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Cape Town \u2013 The government aims to vaccinate about 40 million people or 67% of the population to achieve herd immunity, ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/herd-immunity-is-unlikely-with-virus-variants-professor-madhi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Herd immunity is unlikely with virus variants \u2013 Professor Madhi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cape Town \u2013 The government aims to vaccinate about 40 million people or 67% of the population to achieve herd immunity, ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/herd-immunity-is-unlikely-with-virus-variants-professor-madhi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-02T18:30:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/03\/img-603e7d5f4ff22.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"404\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/herd-immunity-is-unlikely-with-virus-variants-professor-madhi#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/herd-immunity-is-unlikely-with-virus-variants-professor-madhi\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Herd immunity is unlikely with virus variants \u2013 Professor Madhi\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-02T18:30:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/herd-immunity-is-unlikely-with-virus-variants-professor-madhi\"},\"wordCount\":331,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/herd-immunity-is-unlikely-with-virus-variants-professor-madhi#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/03\/img-603e7d5f4ff22.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/herd-immunity-is-unlikely-with-virus-variants-professor-madhi#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/herd-immunity-is-unlikely-with-virus-variants-professor-madhi\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/herd-immunity-is-unlikely-with-virus-variants-professor-madhi\",\"name\":\"Herd immunity is unlikely with virus variants \u2013 Professor Madhi - 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