Hudson Valley, New York Unlikely to Reach ‘Herd Immunity’

Scientists don’t think New York State or the Hudson Valley will reach herd immunity against COVID-19.

For many Americans, the words “herd immunity” meant the end to the COVID pandemic. Herd immunity is when a large about of the population is immune to infection.

The nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, previously estimated 70 percent to 85 percent of the United States would need to be vaccinated for COVID-19 in order to achieve herd immunity.

Over 50 percent of all U.S. adults have had at least one dose of a COVID vaccine, but demand for the vaccine has significantly slipped recently, and now scientists are saying herd immunity won’t be achieved in the foreseeable future, or ever, the New York Times reports.

“The virus is unlikely to go away,” Emory University evolutionary biologist Rustom Antia told the New York…