Right now, we are going through some trying times. We’re all stuck at home hoping for this epidemic to be over. It all feels surrealistic and no one really knows what is going on. During a speech, the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, mentioned “Groepsimmuniteit”. The goal is to slowly and collectively built up immunity in a controlled manner so that the hospitals can still manage the stream of people. This felt important and hopeful, and we need that during these times.

Hello and welcome to Word of the Week! Here, I inform you about a word that I believe is not used enough and how you can use it in a sentence. The word of this week is:

Herd Immunity

Herd Immunity: “Herd Immunity” is a noun. According to the dictionary, it means: “the resistance to the spread of a contagious disease within a population, that results if a sufficiently high proportion of individuals are immune to the disease, especially through vaccination.” This does not mean that everyone should get it to gain immunity, but it means we’ll collectively get through it.

Example sentences:

- The Netherlands is attempting to battle Corona through herd immunity.

- Vaccinating your kids will create herd immunity against common diseases.

- Herd immunity will get us through these trying times safely.