EDITORIAL – COVID-19 immunity

With over 2.8 million Filipinos having caught COVID and getting some degree of natural immunity, and with 36.9 percent of the population now fully vaccinated with another 49.5 percent having received a first dose, a fellow of the OCTA Research Group says the country has attained population immunity.

“When most of a population is immune to an infectious disease, this provides indirect protection – also called population immunity, herd immunity, or herd protection – to those who are not immune to the disease.  The hope is that the population can develop a high enough level of immunity to keep spread low,” according to an article last September in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

With the continuing spread of the highly transmissible and deadlier Delta strain, however, and the threat now posed by the Omicron variant, the government is aiming for 90 percent full vaccination before declaring herd immunity – still a long way from the current 36.9 percent rate. And health professionals are concerned that any premature declaration of population protection might encourage complacency in adherence to COVID health safety protocols.

The healthcare professionals are worried about Christmas shopping crowding especially in outdoor markets, pandemic-heedless crowding in political campaign gatherings, and 100 percent occupancy in jeepneys.

Some quarters think the threat posed by Omicron has been overblown, with the World Health Organization saying existing vaccines will likely work against the variant despite its high transmissibility. On the other hand, COVID-19 is now surging anew in the United Kingdom, with Omicron accounting for 30 percent of new infections.

Following its detection in the UK only two weeks ago, Omicron cases are doubling every two to three days, authorities say. At that rate, Omicron will become the dominant COVID variant in the UK as early as this week. Officials warn that the country, where nearly 70 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, may be facing “a potential tsunami of infections.”

Such lessons cannot go unheeded in countries like the Philippines with a vaccination rate much lower than the UK. While Filipinos have reason to celebrate the lower COVID infection rates, complacency in pandemic safety protocols can lead to another case spike and consequently a return to crippling restrictions.