A lot of people are asking the question, so I think it's useful to point out that a vaccine that prevents 90% of infections would be sufficient for herd immunity in most cases
There are, of course, HUGE caveats here:
- protection must be long-lasting
- must protect against infection, not just symptoms
- vaccination rate has to be quite high
- protection must be long-lasting
- must protect against infection, not just symptoms
- vaccination rate has to be quite high
Nevertheless, if a vaccine does stop 90% of infections, and we can vaccinate 90%+ of the population, then you'd have about 80% of people immune to the disease which is well above any herd immunity threshold for COVID-19
It remains to be seen whether Pfizer's vaccine - or any of the other candidates - can meet this fairly high threshold for efficacy, but if they can then yes vaccine-induced herd immunity would certainly be on the table
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