How will emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants impact herd immunity?
Open accessAbstract
Several lines of evidence now attest that a considerable number of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants are circulating in many countries around the globe, thus reinforcing the need of continuous genomic surveillance to identify introduction events, monitor the diffusion of these new strains and assess their clinical and healthcare impact (1). New viral variants can be defined as “of concern” when their infectivity and/or pathogenicity and/or capacity to escape immune system recognition are significantly higher than the original “wild-type” strain, thus consequently boosting virus spread within the population, enhancing the risk of developing more severe illness and/or even causing epidemic rebounds. As specifically concerns SARS-CoV-2, at least three such variants have been identified in several different territories by both the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) (2) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (3) to-date.
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Current US acceptance rates of 56-75% may be insufficient to reach at least 80-90% coverage, the threshold thought necessary for herd immunity against SARS-CoV-2.
“current acceptance rates of 56–75%245 may be insufficient to reach at least 80–90% coverage246, the threshold thought to be necessary for herd immunity against SARS-CoV-2.”
From mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases: principles, delivery and clinical translation (2021) · cites this paper as [246]
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- Authors
- Lippi, G., & Henry, B. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Verona (IT)
- Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (US)
- Corresponding author
- Lippi, Giuseppe
- Venue
- Annals of Translational Medicine
- Publisher
- AME Publishing Company
- Published
- 2021-04
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 585-585
- ISSN
- 2305-5839 (ISSN-L)
- 2305-5847
- PMC
- PMC8105864
- OpenAlex
- W3135405821
- Cited by
- 33
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 14
- FWCI
- 2.53
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-nd
- Locations
- Annals of Translational Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- SSRN Electronic Journal (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Modeling and Simulation › COVID-19 epidemiological studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies
- Keywords
- SARS-CoV-2 variants, herd immunity, genomic surveillance, variants of concern, immune evasion, epidemic rebound, COVID-19 pandemic, virus transmission
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