herd immunity

‘A network is crucial to describe how infectious disease spreads, and this is what we do’

On Thursday, Joseph E. Aoun, president of Northeastern, joined Alessandro Vespignani, who directs the Network Science Institute, to discuss where we are now in the COVID-19 crisis, where we’re headed, and what policymakers can do to prepare for the next pandemic.

by Laura Castañón May 14, 2020

People waiting queue to take a sample for a covid-19 test, on April 23, 2020, in Prague, Czech Republic. Photo by Katerina Sulova CTK via AP Images

Herd immunity won’t come anytime soon for COVID-19

Herd immunity is the idea that a disease can’t spread through a population once a large enough percentage is immune, either because they’ve recovered from an infection or received a vaccine. But that won’t work with SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, said Samuel Scarpino, an assistant professor who runs the Emergent Epidemics lab at Northeastern.

by Laura Castañón April 23, 2020

Washington is in the midst of the worst measles outbreak in the state in more than 20 years. Photo by iStock.

A lesson from the US measles outbreak: Vaccines don’t just protect you—they protect everyone around you

“Most healthy people can tolerate the measles,” says Brandon Dionne, who studies infectious diseases at Northeastern. “The real risk is the groups of people who can’t, either because they have compromised immune systems or medical conditions that would otherwise prevent them from being immunized.”

by Molly Callahan February 13, 2019

‘A network is crucial to describe how infectious disease spreads, and this is what we do’

Herd immunity won’t come anytime soon for COVID-19

A lesson from the US measles outbreak: Vaccines don’t just protect you—they protect everyone around you

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