COVID-19 herd immunity is nowhere to be found in the United States, according to a new study

One-third of New Yorkers and less than a tenth of American adults are infected with the corona virus by the end of July. A new study of dialysis patients found. This is far from the “herd immunity” that many believe will help end controls aimed at reducing the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19.

In some states, the infection rate was basically zero, according to the study, which tested plasma samples from more than 28,000 selected dialysis patients from across the United States. In New York, the rate was 33.6%, the highest in the country, with the rate moving mostly to the lower districts. The next highest was Louisiana, at 17.6%. New Jersey’s rate is just 11.9%.

Nationwide, the infection rate is just 9%. Herd immunity is when enough people are infected to prevent the virus from spreading further. Experts say the corona virus affects 50 to 65% of the population.

However, it is not clear how long an infection can protect a person. Last month, a Nevada man Became the first person In the country to get COVID-19 twice. Many patients in China and Europe have been rehabilitated.

As of Saturday morning, 203,789 Americans had died from COVID-19, and more than 7 million Americans were confirmed infected. COVID-19 tracker from Johns Hopkins University. About 4.5 million were recovered.

Random infection rates mean that people in areas with high rates of infection are less likely to be protected because others will bring the virus elsewhere, according to William Hanake, a Harvard epidemiologist and one of the authors of the study. Told USA Today.

Dr. George Rutherford, an epidemiologist and biologist at the University of California, San Francisco, said the United States was nowhere near an end to the epidemic. “If we weren’t in a very closed community like prison, we were going to get herd immunity and everyone would be vaccinated,” Rutherford said.

Hanez also worries that communities not yet affected by COVID-19 will feel a sense of false security.

“We expect small-town America not to be in the first uprising,” he said, but over time, as more and more people move in, more and more communities will have explosions as it is introduced.

Separately, as the world approaches 1 million deaths from the epidemic that began in China in December, the World Health Organization said it was “impossible” to double that number. The Washington Post reports.

“Looking at the loss of 1 million people in nine months and the facts about getting vaccinated in the next nine months, this is a huge task for everyone involved,” said Mike Ryan, WHO’s Managing Director of Emergency Planning.