[tweetiepooh]

Me thinks that a lot of this is semantics and what the public understand by the terms not what they really mean. It also depends on what those using the media are trying to say.


With any virus or infectious agent you want to get herd immunity so that it can't spread as easily or with great devastation. That's how epidemiology works. The ideal is to get such wide spread immunity that the virus is removed from circulation totally and doesn't reappear. This is often done with a variety of tools including isolation and vaccination.


What often is heard when herd immunity is mentioned is letting the disease run it's course and those that survive become more and more immune until the virus dies out or becomes a weak disease like the common cold.


I wonder what Cummins is trying to stir up? If he is trying to imply that the government was going to simply let things run with some protection for the NHS but letting a lot of "weak/old folk die who cost the nation lots of money and don't contribute much any more" then quite rightly the government will deny that was ever the intention.