Herd immunity and COVID-19

The US Army has been working on a Covid vaccine for the past two years that they claim will be effective against all COVID and SARS variants. The new vaccine still needs to undergo phase 2 and 3 trials and there is no information about how many shots are needed. The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is a two-shot regimen. After six months they are recommending a third "booster" shot for anyone who received Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson/Janssen COVID-19 vaccines.

It appears that vaccinated people are helping spread the virus. There are many reports of fully vaccinated people catching the virus. Since they don't have severe symptoms, they risk spreading the virus to others, if they go without a mask. Early on in the pandemic it was shown that in order for masks to be effective, everyone had to wear one. Most vaccinated people are no longer following this precaution.

Israel is now recommending a fourth Covid-19 dose vaccine for people 60 and over and medical workers. In just one month, the Omicron variant has taken over Delta to become the predominant strain. Wisconsin is 61.5% fully vaccinated and Minnesota is at 65%. Overall, the USA is 61.6% vaccinated. With 73.2% of the population having at least one shot, there are about 90 million who are unvaccinated. Experts estimate that in the U.S., 70% of the population (more than 200 million people) would have to be vaccinated or recover from COVID-19 to halt the pandemic. 

The U.S. has reported 51.3 million cases so far. This is about 16% of the population. So, if 77.6% of the population has either been vaccinated or had Covid, why haven't we reached heard immunity yet? One problem is that they don't know how long the current vaccines will protect you. And the fact that you can be reinfected and become a carrier after being vaccinated doesn't help. Each new strain seems like we are starting over. A one dose vaccine that is effective against all current and future variants is what we really need.