inheres_in realized_by realizes herd immunity to infectious organism A collective resistance disposition that inheres in an organism population in virtue of the fact that the proportion of the population with immunity to an infectious agent is high resulting in a low number of transmissions from hosts in the population to susceptible individuals in the population and thereby mitigating the damaging effects of the infectious agent on the population. Alexander Diehl Lindsay Cowell Albert Goldfain immunity to infectious agent organism population collective resistance disposition