Healdplace
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 12 May 2013
- Messages
- 15,985
From the debate I have seen out there it is becoming thought most likely that Covid is in effect like the cold - unbeatable through its endemic nature - in that we will all catch it every few years uless we live in a bubble.
So the tactic needed is to find equilibrium with it not annihilation by creating ever better vaccines - aimed not to kill it off (as trying might drive worse variants by giving them a chance to dominate) but to minimise risk from the symptoms allowing us to brush it off not die. As that is not an aim of the virus so it will not be deliberately aiming at destroying its host.
The idea of reaching herd immunity is being seen by many out there as not really valid in the sense that millions catching colds annually (another type of corona virus) has not created immunity for anybody as you get some short term help from your immune system naturally (or primed by vaccines as we are doing with covid) but there will always be a next time opportunity for the upgraded model that comes later.
This is scary and welcome at the same time.
Scary as the risk is a deadly variant that turns covid into a serious threat to civilisation at levels of say 33% mortality will always be there. So we need a FAR better global awareness and action plan to stop an epidemic becoming a pandemic when we do hit that point as is inevitable some time in the future.
But also welcome as it means we will HAVE to accept it as another risk in life but only a risk that becomes more dangerous as we get older so we need to act more sensibly - just as we do with so many other things that get more of an issue as we age.
So once over that transition from the old normal to the new normal it will just become THE normal.
So the tactic needed is to find equilibrium with it not annihilation by creating ever better vaccines - aimed not to kill it off (as trying might drive worse variants by giving them a chance to dominate) but to minimise risk from the symptoms allowing us to brush it off not die. As that is not an aim of the virus so it will not be deliberately aiming at destroying its host.
The idea of reaching herd immunity is being seen by many out there as not really valid in the sense that millions catching colds annually (another type of corona virus) has not created immunity for anybody as you get some short term help from your immune system naturally (or primed by vaccines as we are doing with covid) but there will always be a next time opportunity for the upgraded model that comes later.
This is scary and welcome at the same time.
Scary as the risk is a deadly variant that turns covid into a serious threat to civilisation at levels of say 33% mortality will always be there. So we need a FAR better global awareness and action plan to stop an epidemic becoming a pandemic when we do hit that point as is inevitable some time in the future.
But also welcome as it means we will HAVE to accept it as another risk in life but only a risk that becomes more dangerous as we get older so we need to act more sensibly - just as we do with so many other things that get more of an issue as we age.
So once over that transition from the old normal to the new normal it will just become THE normal.