5 ms·
It's a virus, of which we have cured maybe 2 in history, last I checked. There have been viruses chronically infecting people for many years. So, we could be
by danschumann 6y ago
It's a virus, of which we have cured maybe 2 in history, last I checked. There have been viruses chronically infecting people for many years. So, we could be looking at 30+ years of covid, unless it puts enough impetus on us to cure it, and perhaps more virii.
However, if not, perhaps we do treatments, to make survival rate high enough so no one worries, but is merely wary to get checked. Or, perhaps we have 30 years where even if a single person gets it, the whole community needs to shut down for weeks, and people become suspicious and grow animus toward neighbors, being spiteful and lashing out more frequently, through rudeness or worse.
Or, there's Sweden's route, which I'm kind of envious now. I'm surprised I haven't seen more countries jump in with both feet.
What other options am I missing? Or which of these would you strike?
- 0xB31B1B 6y agowe have vacines for lots of viral illnesses. Measles, Mumps, Rubella, and Polio rank among the most notable. For a complete list see here: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/vaccines-list.html https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/vaccines-list.html We are looking at 30 years of covid insofar as we are looking at 30 years of Measles, 30 years of Polio, or 30 years of Cholera. The point is, if you get your vaccinations, you can live a "normal" life and worry about catching covid as much as you worry about catching measles.
- danschumann 6y agookay that's one more possbility. It's not 100% likely to be able to be vaccined out, from what I've seen. What are the odds of the vaccine working?
- jfengel 6y agoMaking the virus extinct is unlikely, but that's more than required to return life to "normal". What's required would be for its annual death toll to drop out of the top 10, such that it looks more like the kinds of ordinary ways people die at random (car crashes, cancer, etc.) and less like taking unnecessary risks. A decent vaccine (say, 80%+ effective) would lower the transmission rates enough for that. People in high-risk groups may continue to wear masks for the rest of their lives, along with other real changes, but most people could treat their lives as "normal". The odds of that are very good. There are multiple vaccines in process, with good reason to expect them to work, and preliminary evidence that they work fairly well. That may not suffice to eliminate the virus, but it's good enough for people to stop building their lives around it.