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We’re Unlikely to Hit Herd Immunity by Fall

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For months, we’ve been talking about the concept of “herd immunity” to kick the COVID-19 pandemic. But with new variants spreading and many people uninterested in inoculating themselves against this virus, scientists now believe that may be an impossible threshold to reach.  (JOEL SAGET/AFP via Getty Images)

Health experts say that while the Bay Area will likely end up with 80% of its population vaccinated against COVID-19, the United States is unlikely to reach herd immunity, a threshold where a high enough percentage of the population is inoculated against the coronavirus to essentially end its spread. Half of the adults in the U.S. have been inoculated with at least one dose, but daily vaccination rates have been dropping. We’ll talk about what this means for the future of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Guests:

Apoorva Mandavilli, science and global health reporter, New York Times

Lee Riley, professor of epidemiology and infectious diseases, UC Berkeley School of Public Health

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