GMB: Professor Paul Hunter says herd immunity ‘is a myth’
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“We’ve known since the beginning of year that we’re not ever going to get herd immunity with coronavirus,” Professor Paul Hunter said. “You just need to look at the other human coronaviruses to know that herd immunity is a myth.” Professor Hunter is adamant that herd immunity has “always been a myth” and that everybody on the planet will get infected by Covid. He believes it’s time to stop counting the number of infections, as 10,000 plus cases will be the norm every year.
As natural immunity to a Covid infection doesn’t last long, Professor Hunter says, people are likely to experience repeat infections.
The REACT study from Imperial College London showed that 44 percent of Covid infections – between June 24 to July 12 – occurred in fully vaccinated people.
As for child vaccination, Professor Hunter is against the idea, citing the latest office for national statistics (ONS) findings.
The microbiologist mentioned that the figures showed that two thirds of 17-year-olds are already immune to Covid from a previous infection.
“Covid is here forever,” Professor Hunter stated. “And a lot of children are immune.”
It’s for this reason that he thinks that vaccination of children is unnecessary.
Totally against his viewpoint is Dr Zubaida Haque, who argues that Covid cases are still far too high to stop mass testing and to return to normality.
Dr Haque pointed out that there are around 29,000 Covid cases daily, and only a month ago it was verging on 50,000 cases per day.
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“The rate of daily hospitalisations is 10 times more than this time last year,” said Dr Haque.
As an independent member of SAGE, Dr Haque said it’s great that 75 percent of the adult population has been fully vaccinated.
However, she added that approximately 30 percent of people have not been vaccinated at all, including children.
“The one group that we consistently fail to talk about is children, and long Covid,” she said.
Dr Haque points out the risk of organ damage, the number of deaths, and the fact that New Zealand have now gone into another full lockdown.
Meanwhile, here in the UK, most restrictions have been lifted, although mask wearing on public transport is still needed.
As well as mask wearing, Dr Haque thinks the UK needs to continue social distancing and ventilation indoors need to be improved.
The latest Government data shows that the number of people testing positive for the virus is on the increase again.
There has been a 6.5 percent growth in the number of infections in the past week.
In addition, the number of people passing away 28 days following a Covid infection is also rising, albeit marginally.
However, the number of patients being admitted to hospital is still on the decrease.
Both Professor Hunter and Dr Haque agree on one thing – vaccinations can help prevent severe disease from Covid.
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