Mwalimu-G
Elder Lister
Stephen Collinson and Caitlin Hu
'It’s like a petri dish'
US experts are beginning to cast doubt on the notion that we'll ever reach herd immunity — the threshold of widespread immunity that means the disease stops being transmitted. Millions of Americans won’t get the shot for personal, health or political reasons, meaning that the virus could stay in certain communities even when a majority of the country is vaccinated. That means periodic flare-ups of the contagion, complicating the return to normal life, from travel to education.
Experts are especially worried that a large pool of people who are not yet protected by vaccines will allow the virus to grab a bigger foothold again in the fall, when the cold weather in which it thrives returns. Add in the possibility of emerging, extra-contagious variants, and America's current flirtation with normality could soon be over. “We could start this whole process all over again and have another huge pandemic come the winter,” Dr. Leana Wen, a former Baltimore health commissioner, told CNN.
That's why American doctors are pushing for as many people as possible to get vaccinated in the coming months. And while it may seem counterintuitive after months of urging people to mask up, some experts also want the government to relax more restrictions on people who are vaccinated -- in hopes that the sight of immunized people in restaurants and bars will give vaccine skeptics an incentive to get the shot.
The problem is that people who don’t get vaccinated — often conservatives — are frequently among those most adamantly opposed to tracking measures like “vaccine passports,” which could help the limited reopening of some activities. The fight against a disease that seems to have an uncanny ability to tear at the cultural and ideological fault lines of American life has been a political minefield. And despite all their promise, vaccines aren't making those divides any easier to navigate
