Herd immunity was commonly understood at the time to mean allowing the virus to be transmitted unchecked through the population, with enough people catching it and gaining subsequent immunity that at some point infection rates would slow.
I think if we were to go back in terms of our communication errors along the way, and there were a lot, this is firmly one of the ones where I think we didn't help the public by having a debate that I think, quite rightly, upset and confused a lot of people.
Whitty said he sent WhatsApps to a group including Johnson, Matt Hancock, the then health secretary, and officials urging them not to talk publicly about herd immunity given its complexities.
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