 In this study, we examined news media coverage of natural herd immunity in the United States and United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that government officials and a small but vocal group of academics played a prominent role in promoting this approach, while critics were largely drawn from academia and public health. This group clashed over whether natural herd immunity is an appropriate and effective pandemic response, with critics arguing that it is not, and that the consequences of a lockdown are worse than those of promoting herd immunity. Additionally, the media presented a false balance between these two sides, which may have contributed to the popularity of this approach. This article was authored by Marco Zenon, Jeremy Snyder, Alessandro Markin, and others.