Wassup, Doc? Heard Immunity or Herd Effect?

THAT LOOK WHEN YOU DISCOVER IN HIGH SCHOOL THAT THE KIDS IN THE COOL CLIQUE WERE ONLY TOLERATING YOU

There are quite a few 1980s high school John Cameron type coming of age films on this topic, you may have heard it in the Billie Holliday song, or discovered this morsel in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and so discerning the distinction between the herd immunity for which you hope to achieve with a vaccine and the actual herd effect that you enjoy if not vaccinated or having been already infected by a normal pathogen--note that this is not applicable if your pathogen is actually a biological agent being deployed, by function of the larger proportions to which you will be exposed.

Have you ever been that unpopular kid in high school, who suddenly got a cheerleader girlfriend the day, like in a movie, you surprised everyone, caught the football and scored the winning touchdown? Imagine that you have all of the right connections, attended all of the right schools and have daddy's money to burn, and actually get accepted to an Ivy League college, and are taking that Organic Chemistry final exam for which you failed to do the homework, which stands between you and graduation as a pre med student to go off to a top 10 medical school and become rich and famous like Dr. Fauci.

You may have enjoyed some level of herd immunity by hanging out with the right crowd and doing the right things to continue your success, but if you are relying on the herd effect, faking it until you make it, you may, one day, wake up surprised, finding a herd effect presenting a fatal defect.