"Living With Covid" Will Be One of the Biggest Mistakes of the 21st Century

[Nevilledog]

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❤️ Umair
@umairh
"Letting the pandemic simply rip on the vulnerable…so that life can go back to 'normal'…to placate the hard right…is not an appropriate, legitimate, or remotely democratic policy choice."

eand.co
“Living With Covid” Will Be One of the Biggest Mistakes of the 21st Century
Why Endemic Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Does
8:35 AM · Feb 17, 2022

https://eand.co/living-with-covid-will-be-one-of-the-biggest-mistakes-of-the-21st-century-d06651354112

*snip*

Let me take you through what “the endemic phase” is really going to mean.

We will start with three simple facts — three simple facts which, shockingly, almost nobody is aware of. Nobody much is aware of these three facts in their totality precisely because the conversation around Covid has been politicized: it is a false “debate” about wearing masks or taking vaccines — but not about the basic scientific facts, which everyone should know, because they lead to ineluctable conclusions about what the near future holds.

Fact one. Boosters fade in efficacy at somewhere between ten to twelve weeks. We have known this for months now. It isn’t my opinion. It is a scientific fact. Imperial College was one of the first to establish this — finding that boosters fall to about 50% efficacy, which is roughly chance, at ten weeks or so. Recently, America’s CDC has discovered very much the same result — boosters wane at about sixteen weeks. Either way, the science is clear: boosters do not offer lasting protection. They do not make you “permanently immune,” which is what most — including our leaders and governments — appear to think.

If boosters fade at about three months or so, what would be an appropriate policy? It’s obvious: everyone gets boosted every few months. But our societies are by and large not taking that policy choice. Instead, only a handful of nations, like Israel and South Korea have been smart enough to understand this most basic policy implication of the most basic science. Think about what that says about how severely our governments and leaders are failing us. Without boosters every few months, what is likely to happen?

Fact two. Protection against reinfection from a previous case of Covid is as low as 19%. Let me put that another way, which is more to the point. You have up to an 80% chance of being reinfected with Covid.

Let me say it again. You have up to an 80% chance of being reinfected with Covid.

*snip*

[PoliticAverse]

1. This person actually thinks having the entire population re-vaccinated every 3 months

is some type of practical policy.

[Nevilledog]

2. I think that's wishful thinking, even if the science calls for it.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

3. This person's expertise is apparently that they are a vampire with a blog

I'll pay attention to someone serious.

[Ace Rothstein]

4. The people who think zero COVID is possible right now are delusional.

Maybe in 5-10 years we'll have a great vaccine but asking people to put their lives on hold that long isn't going to happen and would be political suicide.

[Phoenix61]

5. That article is 2 months old.

“Omicron infection generally causes less severe disease than infection with prior variants.”
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/variants/omicron-variant.html

“Such protection against reinfection with the omicron variant was lower (approximately 60%) but still considerable. In addition, the protection of previous infection against hospitalization or death caused by reinfection appeared to be robust, regardless of variant.”
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2200133

[Nevilledog]

6. Dated February 15th

[PufPuf23]

7. This article is far from optimistic. alas. nt

[SoonerPride]

8. There is no avoiding covid unless you never leave your house

Vaccines keep you alive.

If you want to never be exposed to covid your only option is to never go outside ever again.

And even then your pets probably will infect you with it.

Living with covid is a reality.

There is no other option.

[Raftergirl]

9. We can't even get a majority of people

who are already eligible to get a first booster to get one, and in many countries they don’t even have the ability yet to vaccinate a large percentage of their populations , let alone booster shots.

Also, while antibodies wane, our B cells and T cells still have the ability to recognize the virus and fight the infection. It does take a few days for those memory cells to do their thing - which is why those who are vaxxed still get symptoms for several days if infected.

In addition, that 80% chance of being reinfected is bs with the know variants.

Of course it is possible there will be a variant that evades both vaccine and natural infection antibodies and memory cells ability to recognize the virus, but that has not happened yet, regardless of the variant.