The World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned against suggestions by some to just allow COVID-19 to spread in the hope of achieving so-called herd immunity, saying this was “unethical”.

“Allowing a dangerous virus that we don’t fully understand to run free is simply unethical,” Tedros said.

“Herd immunity is a concept used for vaccination, in which a population can be protected from a certain virus if a threshold of vaccination is reached,” Tedros added during a virtual press briefing.

For measles, for instance, it is estimated that if 95% of the population is vaccinated, the remaining 5% will also be protected from the spread of the virus.

“Herd immunity is achieved by protecting people from a virus, not by exposing them to it,” Tedros said.