Over half of the UK population will become infected with coronavirus in order for society to have ‘herd immunity’ from future outbreaks, Your Content can report.
The stunning revelation comes from a man known as Sir Patrick Vallance.
Herd immunity is the resistance to a contagious disease within a population because enough people have become immune.
Sir Patrick says coronavirus is a ‘nasty disease’ but stressed most people would only experience a ‘mild’ illness.
‘We think this virus is likely to be one that comes year on year, becomes like a seasonal virus,’ he told Sky News.
“Communities will become immune to it and that’s going to be an important part of controlling this longer term.’
‘About 60% is the sort of figure you need to get herd immunity.’
‘That’s why some of the new tests that are being developed now are going to be so important, so we can really understand how this disease is spreading and we don’t have a handle on that yet,’ he added.
The World Health Organisation has declared a global pandemic following the spread of coronavirus across many countries.
“What we don’t want to do is to get into kneejerk reactions where you have to start doing measures at the wrong pace because something’s happened,” he added.
“So we’re trying to keep ahead of it, we’re trying to lay out the path so people can see what the actions are that are being advised.”
