FASTER, PLEASE: Gottlieb says U.S. likely “a long way” from herd immunity to virus.

Gottlieb said seroprevalence studies overall indicate that roughly 8% of the U.S. population has been exposed to the coronavirus, though the rate of exposure varies depending on whether states have experienced outbreaks. In Arizona, for example, roughly 25% of the population has been exposed based on modeling, while as much as 20% of the population in Florida has been exposed, he said.

“That’s getting closer to a level of immunity where the rate of transmission will start to decline,” Gottlieb said. “It’s not quite herd immunity, but you’re to see declines in the rate of transmission because of that level of infection.”

Despite all the hand-wringing by the press, it looks like the Sun Belt is doing much better than elsewhere.