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Rethinking herd immunity

Nature Medicine volume 25, pages 1178–1180 (2019)Cite this article

The global rise of ‘vaccine hesitancy’ is changing the landscape of disease transmission.

This all happened despite the fact that some 95% of children in San Diego County had been vaccinated against the disease. That proportion, according to the concept of herd immunity, should be enough to keep measles at bay and protect those left unvaccinated. So, why did the outbreak still occur? That question has become increasingly common as outbreaks of preventable disease increasingly crop up in areas thought to have good population-level protection.

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  1. Freelance science journalist, Seattle, WA, USA

    Lynne Peeples

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  1. Lynne Peeples
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Correspondence to Lynne Peeples.

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Peeples, L. Rethinking herd immunity. Nat Med 25, 1178–1180 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-019-0515-2

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