<p style=”margin-bottom: 13px; text-align: center;”><span style=”font-size:11pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:Calibri,sans-serif”><b><span style=”font-size:12.0pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”>SOURCE &ndash; THE HINDU</span></span></b></span></span></span></p>

<p style=”margin-bottom: 13px; text-align: center;”><span style=”font-size:11pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:Calibri,sans-serif”><b><span style=”font-size:12.0pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”>GS PAPER &ndash; 2&nbsp; and 3</span></span></b></span></span></span></p>

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<p style=”margin-bottom:13px”><span style=”font-size:11pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:Calibri,sans-serif”><b><span style=”font-size:12.0pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”>CONTEXT</span></span></b><span style=”font-size:12.0pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”>- Indian Council of Medical Research&rsquo;s (ICMR)&nbsp;<a href=”https://www.thehindu.com/topic/coronavirus/” style=”color:blue; text-decoration:underline”>COVID-19&nbsp;</a>first sero-survey should not create a sense of complacency in people with regard to the virus. Speaking in his social media interaction Sunday Samvaad-3, Mr. Vardhan said indications from the up-coming second sero survey &ldquo;are that India is far from having achieved any kind of herd immunity which necessitates that all of us should continue following COVID appropriate behaviour.</span></span></span></span></span></p>

<p style=”margin-bottom:13px”><span style=”font-size:11pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:Calibri,sans-serif”><b><span style=”font-size:12.0pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”>WHAT IS HERD IMMUNITY ?</span></span></b></span></span></span></p>

<p style=”margin-bottom:13px”><span style=”font-size:11pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:Calibri,sans-serif”><span style=”font-size:12.0pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”>Herd immunity is when a large number of people are vaccinated against a disease, lowering the chances of others being infected by it.&nbsp;When a sufficient percentage of a population is vaccinated, it slows the spread of disease. It is also referred to as community immunity or herd protection.</span></span></span></span></span></p>

<p style=”margin-bottom:13px”><span style=”font-size:11pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:Calibri,sans-serif”><span style=”font-size:12.0pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”>Herd protection of the unvaccinated occurs when a sufficient proportion of the group is immune.</span></span></span></span></span></p>

<p style=”margin-bottom:13px”><span style=”font-size:11pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:Calibri,sans-serif”><span style=”font-size:12.0pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”>The decline of disease incidence is greater than the proportion of individuals immunized because vaccination reduces the spread of an infectious agent by reducing the amount and/or duration of pathogen shedding by vaccines, retarding transmission.</span></span></span></span></span></p>

<p style=”margin-bottom:13px”><span style=”font-size:11pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:Calibri,sans-serif”><span style=”font-size:12.0pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”>However,this type of immunity is usually viewed as a preventive strategy in vaccination programmes.</span></span></span></span></span></p>

<p style=”margin-bottom:13px”><span style=”font-size:11pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:Calibri,sans-serif”><span style=”font-size:12.0pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”>Since,we don&rsquo;t have a vaccine for COVID-19 &ndash; achieving herd immunity would require a significant proportion of the population to be infected and recover from COVID-19.</span></span></span></span></span></p>

<p style=”margin-bottom:13px”><span style=”font-size:11pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”><span style=”font-family:Calibri,sans-serif”><span style=”font-size:12.0pt”><span style=”line-height:115%”>This will allow us to retain an immunological memory of the disease that enables us to fight off that same disease in the future.</span></span></span></span></span></p>

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