What is herd or population immunity?

When a lot of people in a community are vaccinated, the virus has a hard time circulating because most of the people it encounters are immune.  The more people who are vaccinated, the less likely people who are unable to be protected by vaccines are at risk of even being exposed to the virus. This is called herd immunity. No single vaccine provides 100% protection, and herd immunity does not provide full protection to those who cannot safely be vaccinated.