67% of people in a small town in Italy have virus antibodies. Does this mean herd immunity has become a reality?

If this news is true, it means that the "herd immunity" plan that has been cool in the UK has become a reality in Italy. According to Italian media reports on April 2, in Lombardy, a region hardest hit by the epidemic, 67% of blood donors in a small town had virus antibodies. Among the 60 people who donated blood, 40 tested positive for the virus. These blood donors did not know that they were infected with COVID-19 and did not develop any symptoms. But these blood donors are different from ordinary asymptomatic infections. Doctors analyzed their serum and found that they had produced virus antibodies.

When it comes to this, it is easy to think of the "herd immunity" plan previously proposed by the British government, which is to allow 60% of people to be infected with the virus, so that the British body can produce virus antibodies. Although this method is somewhat imaginative and may lead to emergency medical treatment, some British biologists believe that it has a scientific basis, at least based on the evolutionary perspective of "survival of the fittest" and "survival of the fittest". If Italy really achieves herd immunity, it will be good news for local anti-epidemic efforts, but it is still controversial.

First of all, the herd immunity plan is based on sacrificing a small number of "inferior" people. 60% of people will be infected with the virus, and some of them will die from COVID-19. With Italy's current population of 60 million, It is estimated that the number of infected people is about 36 million, and based on the average mortality rate of 3.4% announced by the WHO, the death toll is as high as 1.22 million. Moreover, the actual situation in Italy is that it has a serious aging population, and the death rate from COVID-19 is as high as 12.3%. Based on this ratio, the number of deaths will be even higher.

Therefore, the herd immunity plan cannot be implemented in Italy. The Italian government must still adhere to its principles, implement the blockade policy, and isolate and treat patients in a timely manner. Compared with the "corpse town" that appeared in Italy before, the emergence of antibodies this time is relatively optimistic news, and may give Italy a glimmer of hope at the darkest moment of the epidemic. How serious is the epidemic situation in Italy? Hospitals are full of corpses. In some hospital wards in Lombardy, there are more dead people than living people. The Italian government even dispatched 70 military trucks to transport the corpses. However, local officials do not know where to transport the corpses because the funeral parlors have piled them up. Full of corpses waiting to be cremated.

Italy is not only the epicenter of the epidemic in Europe, but also an area that all countries need to pay attention to. If the epidemic in Italy does not end, Europe will not have a peaceful day, and the world will also be affected. We hope that Italian medical experts will study the antibodies that appear this time and make some contributions to the development of vaccines and specific drugs.