Herd Immunity Not A Possibility With Delta Variant, Warns UK Vaccine Expert

There is no cause for "panic", the expert said as he expressed his doubts over the UK government's proposed third booster dose of vaccines.

The highly transmissible Delta variant of coronavirus has rendered the prospect of herd immunity, where the majority of a country's population becomes immune to a virus, difficult, the head of the UK's Oxford Vaccine Group has warned. Professor Andrew Pollard, who led the team that was behind the Oxford University's COVID-19 vaccine, told the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Coronavirus Tuesday that the fear of another even more transmissible variant remains a possibility and, therefore, there is nothing that can completely stop the deadly virus from spreading. However, he also said there was no cause for "panic" as he expressed his doubts over the UK government's proposed third booster dose of vaccines. "The problem with this virus is (it is) not measles. If 95% of people were vaccinated against measles, the virus cannot transmit in the population," Professor Pollard explained during the online evidence session.