But he has dangled the goal of herd immunity, while gradually upping the percentage of vaccination required to get there. Herd immunity to many people means “eradication” and the media has helped foster that belief.
It's not medical personnel's fault that people don't know what words mean. Again, medical personnel were clear that herd immunity would prevent widespread, but not local, outbreaks. It definitely didn't mean, and was never claimed to be, that you had no risk of getting sick.
Even on random fox news article that comes up via searching herd immunity, the subtitle is
"Herd immunity doesn’t make any one person immune"
The percentage required was never a solid number in the first place and the shift is due to our better knowledge of the virus and the new strains that necessitate higher vaccination rate.
Fauci pretty openly stated that he moved the goalposts based on public sentiment regarding vaccination, not better knowledge of the virus. It has been very frustrating watching policymakers who really should know better (mask debacle, anyone?) repeat the same mistake of sabotaging their long-term credibility for short-term PR reasons.
> Fauci indicated that he based his shifting statements on public polling on the popularity of coronavirus vaccines.
> "When polls said only about half of all Americans would take a vaccine, I was saying herd immunity would take 70 to 75 percent," Fauci said. "Then, when newer surveys said 60 percent or more would take it, I thought, 'I can nudge this up a bit,' so I went to 80, 85."
> He continued: "We really don’t know what the real number is. I think the real range is somewhere between 70 to 90 percent. But, I’m not going to say 90 percent."
My friend, that’s the definition of moving goalposts. But of course everything changes over time, as it should. Are we still trying to reach herd immunity? What percentage vaccinated would be required for that? Two questions for you to research.
Edit: Do we have enough doses even today to vaccinate everyone, worldwide? I think we do not.
