Virologists assess population immunity against COVID-19 in Russia

Herd immunity has not yet formed in RUSSIA due to low vaccination rates and new CORONAVIRUS mutations. This was announced to RBC by an immunologist, HEAD of the laboratory for vaccine prevention and immunotherapy of allergic diseases of the Federal State Budget Scientific Institution Research Institute of Vaccines and Serums. Mechnikov, Professor Mikhail Kostinov.

A day earlier, Ancha Baranova, professor at the School of Systems Biology at George Mason University (Virginia, usa ), chief researcher at the Laboratory of Functional Genomics at the Medical Genetic Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, also indicated in an interview with RIA Novosti that herd immunity in Russia does not have time to form due to low the rate of vaccination and the formation of new strains of the virus.

“Vaccination is not going as fast as we would like - they are very low. Although, it would seem, there are three vaccines - choose according to your taste and do it. This is not news, but our misfortune. People don’t want to do it, they get sick, and as a result, the virus changes and more and more mutations occur,” Kostinov said.

At the same time, according to him, the variability of the virus is not the main reason for the lack of herd immunity. “So far, the pathogenic properties of the virus do not change dramatically, but over time, if we continue to have few vaccines, it will change more,” he concluded.