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It doesn't matter whether your justification for why this should happen is altruism or selfishness, the same problem remains: a vaccination program of the scale

by makomk 5y ago

It doesn't matter whether your justification for why this should happen is altruism or selfishness, the same problem remains: a vaccination program of the scale and speed we've already seen is literally unprecedented, it's astounding that everyone managed this much, and yet even with that incredible effort there still aren't the doses to vaccinate the planet any time in the imminent future let alone the on-the-ground infrastructure to deliver them everywhere - and even the rich, developed countries with the best vaccine rollouts out there probably haven't reached herd immunity before new variants made that impractical or even impossible with the current vaccines. This isn't that remarkable. Previous attempts to deal with respiratory disease pandemics using vaccines have proved pretty futile, even though it is a standard part of pandemic planning.

oezi 5y ago
I think the remarkable thing is that vaccine development and manufacturing is one of the smallest costs of the pandemic. For example the cost of a dose of Biontech Pfizer vaccine is roughly the same as the cost of getting a single antigen test performed in Germany (both roughly 20 EUR). With the variants/mutations it seems we should invest much more in vaccine capacity to avoid spending 2022 in another lockdown. > there still aren't the doses to vaccinate the planet any time in the imminent future let alone the on-the-ground infrastructure to deliver them everywhere I think the vaccinations campaigns everywhere (in the developed world at least) have shown that the infrastructure to vaccinate everyone is there if only we have enough supplies of vaccines.
- oceanplexian 5y ago
  Half the worlds population lives on less than $5.50 per day. If you offered them 20 EUR they wouldn’t use it on a vaccine for a highly survivable disease (Compared to HIV, Malaria, and TB), they’d use it to buy food and water.

by makomk 5y ago

oezi 5y ago

I think the remarkable thing is that vaccine development and manufacturing is one of the smallest costs of the pandemic. For example the cost of a dose of Biontech Pfizer vaccine is roughly the same as the cost of getting a single antigen test performed in Germany (both roughly 20 EUR). With the variants/mutations it seems we should invest much more in vaccine capacity to avoid spending 2022 in another lockdown. > there still aren't the doses to vaccinate the planet any time in the imminent future let alone the on-the-ground infrastructure to deliver them everywhere I think the vaccinations campaigns everywhere (in the developed world at least) have shown that the infrastructure to vaccinate everyone is there if only we have enough supplies of vaccines.

oceanplexian 5y ago
Half the worlds population lives on less than $5.50 per day. If you offered them 20 EUR they wouldn’t use it on a vaccine for a highly survivable disease (Compared to HIV, Malaria, and TB), they’d use it to buy food and water.