Letting COVID-19 'run free' with eye to herd immunity 'unethical': WHO

Geneva: The World Health Organisation chief warned Monday against suggestions by some to just allow COVID-19 to spread in the hope of achieving so-called herd immunity, saying this was "unethical".

"Never in the history of public health has herd immunity been used as a strategy for responding to an outbreak, let alone a pandemic," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press briefing.

"It is scientifically and ethically problematic," he said. "Allowing a dangerous virus that we don't fully understand to run free is simply unethical. It's not an option."