Herd Immunity: Communicating Collective Action to Suppress COVID-19 in Two Nordic Countries

This chapter begins with a brief introduction to the concept of herd immunity and reviews how mass vaccination programs have historically aimed to achieve certain immunity thresholds to infectious diseases (i.e., smallpox, measles, human papilloma virus). During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic with vaccines still in development, many questioned whether, when, and at what cost herd immunity could be achieved through natural infection alone. As public health officials cautioned against the uncontrolled spread of COVID-19, early outbreaks followed by decelerated infection rates in regions of Brazil and Italy fueled debates worldwide over the risk tradeoff between strict lockdown measures and non-pharmaceutical interventions like social distancing and masking. The second half of the chapter provides a comparative case study of COVID-19 response in Sweden and Norway. These Nordic neighbors are well-known for their comprehensive social welfare systems, high levels of trust in public institutions, and strong community ideals of cooperation. Nevertheless, Sweden and Norway adopted vastly different pandemic response strategies. Sweden remained relatively ‘open’ during sweeping lockdowns worldwide and was accused of an experimental pursuit of herd immunity. By contrast, Norway implemented lockdowns and social distancing protocols until vaccines could be distributed to geographic areas based on disease burden. Along the way, both countries exhibited miscalculations in public communication and faced scrutiny from media. In the end, the two achieved similar vaccination rates, but Sweden suffered more than twice as many deaths.