Herd immunity is magical. It's honestly probably the reason we have people, and the degree of stability and civilization we've been able to achieve. It slows the spread of infection, it keeps diseases from sweeping through populations like wildfire, it's a genuine miracle.

Part of why vaccines are a genuine gamechanger is because they allow us to develop antibodies against a disease without actually experiencing the disease.

(And part of why the anti-vaccination movement against measles vaccines is so brutal is because measles causes your body to FORGET other immunities. So you had chickenpox, then you get measles? Now you can have chickenpox again!)

Without a vaccine, the only way to achieve herd immunity is through viral spread...when you're talking about a disease that actually causes a human immune response that prevents catching it a second time.

We do not currently have conclusive proof that COVID-19 is one of those diseases.

What we DO know is that it causes damage throughout the entire body, kills people at a higher rate than any seasonal flu since the Spanish Lady, and can cause permanent organ damage.

Herd immunity may literally not be possible with COVID-19. So rushing out to catch it and "get it over with" is not necessarily protecting you against successive waves (and it's DEFINITELY endangering other people because you felt the need to go to TJ Maxx).

Please, please stop acting like herd immunity is going to save us, and making cracks about how the faster people who live in tiny, cramped apartments with their three kids rush back out to Walmart, the faster they'll all get sick and protect you.

I grew up in that apartment. If I'd been forced into this lockdown with my mother, two sisters, and her shitty boyfriend of the week, someone would have died, and not of disease, unless you want to call it "stabbedinthechestitis".

We are, quite literally, all in this together. We're not only a herd when it gets you what you want and unlocks the door.

Please.