5 ms·

A Doomsday Covid Variant Worse Than Delta and Lambda May Be Coming

1 points by nnx 5y ago

sjg007 5y ago
It'll probably happen because we can't get enough people vaccinated and we can't shutdown borders effectively. Variants may evolve independently anyway. This will require a combo approach where we can rapidly produce new mRNA vaccines, monoclonal antibodies and effective anti-virals. We would need aggressive quarantines as well but that might only work if we have rapid surveillance programs. To do that you need a big investment in RT-PCR and sequencing.
- ipspam 5y ago
  Now you get it! The vaccines were NEVER going to eliminate Covid. Only 2 viruses in the history of humanity have been eliminated. Consider reassessing blame to Politicians/China/Scientific community/censorship and narrative control
  - gus_massa 5y ago
    I think only smallpox has been eradicated. Polio is in it's way out, but it has been in it's way out for a long time, and I think we still need like 5 or 10 years to eradicate Polio. [1] In spite total annihilation of covid-19 would be nice, really nice [2], I expect that the more deadly variants will be destroyed, but the very mild variants will continue to fly under the radar like other coronavirus. Perhaps we will add a yearly vaccine/booster for the very young and very old, like with the flu. [1] I hope to see it. Let's organize a big party that day. [2] https://xkcd.com/2448/ https://xkcd.com/2448/
anigbrowl 5y ago
A wholly speculative article which could be summarized as 'what if Delta but even worse'. Yes, this is a real possibility. No, the authors have no estimate of the probability - similar to 'a giant asteroid could be coming that we haven't detected yet.' It's true, but not actionable. Newsweek often does quite good reporting but then delivers it in a horribly sensationalist wrapper. One of the ways to spot sensationalism is redundancy: 'a doomsday variant worse than Delta and Lambda'. It's like saying 'a bad thing that is also bad' may happen in future.

1 points by nnx 5y ago

It'll probably happen because we can't get enough people vaccinated and we can't shutdown borders effectively. Variants may evolve independently anyway. This will require a combo approach where we can rapidly produce new mRNA vaccines, monoclonal antibodies and effective anti-virals. We would need aggressive quarantines as well but that might only work if we have rapid surveillance programs. To do that you need a big investment in RT-PCR and sequencing.

ipspam 5y ago
Now you get it! The vaccines were NEVER going to eliminate Covid. Only 2 viruses in the history of humanity have been eliminated. Consider reassessing blame to Politicians/China/Scientific community/censorship and narrative control
- gus_massa 5y ago
  I think only smallpox has been eradicated. Polio is in it's way out, but it has been in it's way out for a long time, and I think we still need like 5 or 10 years to eradicate Polio. [1] In spite total annihilation of covid-19 would be nice, really nice [2], I expect that the more deadly variants will be destroyed, but the very mild variants will continue to fly under the radar like other coronavirus. Perhaps we will add a yearly vaccine/booster for the very young and very old, like with the flu. [1] I hope to see it. Let's organize a big party that day. [2] https://xkcd.com/2448/ https://xkcd.com/2448/

anigbrowl 5y ago

A wholly speculative article which could be summarized as 'what if Delta but even worse'. Yes, this is a real possibility. No, the authors have no estimate of the probability - similar to 'a giant asteroid could be coming that we haven't detected yet.' It's true, but not actionable. Newsweek often does quite good reporting but then delivers it in a horribly sensationalist wrapper. One of the ways to spot sensationalism is redundancy: 'a doomsday variant worse than Delta and Lambda'. It's like saying 'a bad thing that is also bad' may happen in future.