The director of the Oxford Vaccine Group said herd immunity is “not a possibility” because of the highly infectious delta variant, which is more transmissible than previous strains of the virus and is causing infections to surge globally.
“I think we are in a situation here with this current vacant where herd immunity is not a possibility because it still infects vaccinated individuals,” Andrew Pollard said on Tuesday.
Vaccines that have been approved in the U.S. and the United Kingdom have proven to be highly effective against preventing serious illness from COVID-19. The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are approved in both countries. The U.S. is also administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and the U.K. has approved the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot.
