The chief scientist of the WHO, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, warned that the concept of herd immunity , or a large section of the population developing antibodies against COVID-19, is still a long way off and can be sped up by a vaccine.

In a social media live event organised by the World Health Organisation from Geneva, the scientist said that more waves of the infection would be required to get to a stage of natural immunity. Therefore, she warned, that at least for the next year or so, the world needs to be geared up to do everything possible to keep the novel coronavirus at bay while scientists work on vaccines. Meanwhile, therapeutics will help keep death rates low and allow people to get on with their lives.

"For this concept of herd immunity, you need 50% to 60% of the population to have this immunity to be actually able to break those chains of transmission," explained Ms. Swaminathan.

"That’s much easier to do with a vaccine; we can achieve it faster and without people getting sick and dying. So, it is much better to do it that way, to achieve herd immunity through natural infection. We would have several waves [of infection] and unfortunately also the mortality that we see," she said.

The chief scientist of the WHO, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, warned that the concept of herd immunity , or a large section of the population developing antibodies against COVID-19, is still a long way off and can be sped up by a vaccine.

In a social media live event organised by the World Health Organisation from Geneva, the scientist said that more waves of the infection would be required to get to a stage of natural immunity. Therefore, she warned, that at least for the next year or so, the world needs to be geared up to do everything possible to keep the novel coronavirus at bay while scientists work on vaccines. Meanwhile, therapeutics will help keep death rates low and allow people to get on with their lives.

"For this concept of herd immunity, you need 50% to 60% of the population to have this immunity to be actually able to break those chains of transmission," explained Ms. Swaminathan.

"That’s much easier to do with a vaccine; we can achieve it faster and without people getting sick and dying. So, it is much better to do it that way, to achieve herd immunity through natural infection. We would have several waves [of infection] and unfortunately also the mortality that we see," she said.