By bahamuts scalie hide, is this thing still going? I disappear for a while and comeback to hundreds of notifications all leading me to this one topic... I kinda regret making this thread now.
By bahamuts scalie hide, is this thing still going? I disappear for a while and comeback to hundreds of notifications all leading me to this one topic... I kinda regret making this thread now.
"By bahamuts scalie hide, is this thing still going?"
Blame the anti-maskers and the anti-vaxxers.
I agree, although the less-developed countries not being vaccinated pretty much spells doom for any 100% containment strategy anyway. Until that's dealt with, there's always a chance some variant will pop up that makes the current vaccines obsolete.
"By bahamuts scalie hide, is this thing still going?"
Blame the anti-maskers and the anti-vaxxers.
I agree, although the less-developed countries not being vaccinated pretty much spells doom for any 100% containment strategy anyway. Until that's dealt with, there's always a chance some variant will pop up that makes the current vaccines obsolete.
There's more than enough resources in the global community to get vaccines, if not at least masks to these countries.
There are actually clear pandemic response scripts and scenarios since the Spanish flu, and clearly the world has shown that not all individuals in power are good at executing them, nor all individuals are good at following them 24/7.
People will be people. I think the anti-vaxxers or anti-maskers are not the only ones to blame. There are plenty of people who are not fully aware of sanitary requirements, or they forget once in a while, or think it will pass without impacting them very much. It is only natural for an individual. We are not a hive minded species.
There are actually clear pandemic response scripts and scenarios since the Spanish flu, and clearly the world has shown that not all individuals in power are good at executing them, nor all individuals are good at following them 24/7.
People will be people. I think the anti-vaxxers or anti-maskers are not the only ones to blame. There are plenty of people who are not fully aware of sanitary requirements, or they forget once in a while, or think it will pass without impacting them very much. It is only natural for an individual. We are not a hive minded species.
We've somehow managed to convince 99% of the population that running red lights on a whim and driving the wrong way on the interstate are bad ideas. The most practical measures to curtail COVID-19 are hardly inherently more difficult to comprehend or take part in. It's just that no one has tied their entire political identity to not obeying routine traffic laws.
I tend to agree with the writer of this article. It's high time for a reality check on what's working and what isn't working in regards to Covid-19 mitigation...
caveat - I am not a professional in the health care sector. This is just my understanding of the subject.
Just read a very short story on Yahoo about a new covid vaccine administration method that could be a game changer. Apparently the UK Oxford University are developing a nasal spray variant of the Astra Zeneca vaccine similar to how UK children receive their annual flu immunisations. The reason this could be a game changer is that it has the potential to actually make the recipients of it immune to the corona virus that causes covid. All the current vaccines that are injected do not do this. They are designed to prevent serious illness and hospitalisation. In other words with the current vaccines you can still catch the illness you just shouldn't get anywhere near as sick. In fact it is quite possible that recipients of the injected vaccine could catch the virus but show no symptoms.
So there is hope of finally (should the work prove successful) of eliminating covid in the majority (depending on the figures for efficacy) of a population.
Well, since the forum shutdown we now have a new variant of concern, Omicron. It seems to be much more transmissible and capable of re-infection in previously infected/vaccinated individuals, but apparently is milder. This fits with what we know of typical disease evolution, which is a trend towards becoming more infectious, but less lethal, as hosts that stay alive will be much more successful at spreading you around. All the same, the traits that make it so infectious also make it very dangerous for anybody who still isn't vaccinated and is in an at-risk group. Hopefully the new anti-COVID drugs now available can blunt the lethality for those who do wind up hospitalized, and anybody who can get vaccinated should still get it (take a booster shot too if available. I'm scheduled for mine in a few weeks.)
The "milder" is very uncertain; the Omicron variant has been spreading in a population that already has significant protection from vaccines and previous infections. And that does protect against serious cases pretty well, even from the new variant.
The evolutionary pressure on infectious diseases is toward more infectivity, but it's pretty neutral on lethality. Especially for a disease that's infectious before it's symptomatic, like this one. The "less lethal" pressure comes from the host side, as the population gains resistance. Just look at what happened when Europeans reached the Americas; the various diseases that Europe had been living with for centuries decimated the native populations, because they hadn't built up any resistance.
There's apparently a new US DOD (Department of Defense) vaccine that not only will protect against Covid, but potentially all coronaviruses, including those that cause the common cold. I'm wondering what the trust level is out there for something like this...
Will protect? Maybe, maybe not. They haven't tested that yet. The current testing level on that new vaccine is about at the level of "it won't kill people right away". Wait and see.
You couldn't make it up. If you thought that anti-vaxers were deranged loonies, I have now seen proof. A funeral director who is said by the press to be a leading anti-vaxer in the UK has changed his mind after being admitted to hospital with covid. His name is John O'Looney... Yahoo news article (also reported in UK press).
Comments
It's the gift that just keeps giving!
Blame the anti-maskers and the anti-vaxxers.
I agree, although the less-developed countries not being vaccinated pretty much spells doom for any 100% containment strategy anyway. Until that's dealt with, there's always a chance some variant will pop up that makes the current vaccines obsolete.
There's more than enough resources in the global community to get vaccines, if not at least masks to these countries.
People will be people. I think the anti-vaxxers or anti-maskers are not the only ones to blame. There are plenty of people who are not fully aware of sanitary requirements, or they forget once in a while, or think it will pass without impacting them very much. It is only natural for an individual. We are not a hive minded species.
We've somehow managed to convince 99% of the population that running red lights on a whim and driving the wrong way on the interstate are bad ideas. The most practical measures to curtail COVID-19 are hardly inherently more difficult to comprehend or take part in. It's just that no one has tied their entire political identity to not obeying routine traffic laws.
TR
https://theweek.com/coronavirus/1006809/covid-hawks-are-fighting-a-losing-war
Just read a very short story on Yahoo about a new covid vaccine administration method that could be a game changer. Apparently the UK Oxford University are developing a nasal spray variant of the Astra Zeneca vaccine similar to how UK children receive their annual flu immunisations. The reason this could be a game changer is that it has the potential to actually make the recipients of it immune to the corona virus that causes covid. All the current vaccines that are injected do not do this. They are designed to prevent serious illness and hospitalisation. In other words with the current vaccines you can still catch the illness you just shouldn't get anywhere near as sick. In fact it is quite possible that recipients of the injected vaccine could catch the virus but show no symptoms.
So there is hope of finally (should the work prove successful) of eliminating covid in the majority (depending on the figures for efficacy) of a population.
TR
The evolutionary pressure on infectious diseases is toward more infectivity, but it's pretty neutral on lethality. Especially for a disease that's infectious before it's symptomatic, like this one. The "less lethal" pressure comes from the host side, as the population gains resistance. Just look at what happened when Europeans reached the Americas; the various diseases that Europe had been living with for centuries decimated the native populations, because they hadn't built up any resistance.
TR