Following the Herd?

It's summer time, when transmission of viral, respiratory infections is supposed to be at its lowest. Not so! In the week ending 25th June, the UK recorded its greatest number of Covid infections since late April. Experts are already predicting a fresh 'wave' before the end of the year (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/01/uk-covid-levels-rise-estimated-cases-last-week). What's going on? The UK has a rapid succession of mass-participation events. These have included the Platinum jubilee celebrations, the Glastonbury pop festival and, now, Test cricket and Wimbledon. Such events clearly do nothing to restrict transmission. Danny Altmann (Imperial College London) suggests, however, that the concept of 'herd immunity' for Covid19 is a myth. 'Living with the virus' might be a good deal less easy than had people hoped? (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/01/herd-immunity-covid-virus-vaccine). The current rampant BA4 and BA5 sub-variants of Omicron are more transmissible and more immune evasive. This means that, even after having Omicron, people are not well-protected from further infections. Folk can get a new infection within days of 'recovery'. Altmann points out that most people, even when triple vaccinated, produce 20 times fewer 'neutralising antibodies' against Omicron, than against the original 'Wuhan' strain of Covid19. Just to complicate things, we also have the phenomenon of 'immune imprinting'. An individual's immune response to Covid19 appears to be shaped very differently by their prior viral exposure. Exposure can occur via a variety of vaccinations and/or infections by a succession of particular viral variants. Altmann concludes that the idea we will eventually adapt to live with a relatively benign virus is mistaken. He also notes that, in the UK, 2022's Covid19 infections have, thus far, generated almost 620,000 cases of Long Covid. This country is rapidly adding to a long-term and expensive health problem. The next generation of vaccines, Altmann feels, may be more capable of dealing with multiple and changing Covid19 variants. We are, however, a long way from generating these. I wouldn't hold your breath. 'Living with Covid19' may be like learning to live with a psychopath.