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> A mild strain of covid that is contagious, leads to natural immunity and doesn’t require a vaccine is an absolute win win for the world. No. Covid reeinfects

> A mild strain of covid that is contagious, leads to natural immunity and doesn’t require a vaccine is an absolute win win for the world. No. Covid reeinfects. There's only a short-lived immunity. Covid is not a cold. If it doesn't get your the first or the second or the third time it will get you the 15th time. Long term damage is not getting enough attention. In decades maybe we get a mild covid. > Way too many comments and articles that try and keep the fear train running full steam. And they should. 2 years in and in a month we are back to 2020 measures and public health policies have barely improved.

988747 5y ago
> No. Covid reeinfects. There's only a short-lived immunity. So let's Omicron, or any other mild variant spread, we'll get reinfected regularly, thus developing resistance to more malignant strains. That's how we beat flu, which, believe or not, was deadly in the past. Now we get millions of flu infections each year, but no one cares, because they are mild.
- johnchristopher 5y ago
  > we'll get reinfected regularly, thus developing resistance to more malignant strains. Clearly not how it works and not what's happening. We are not developing resistance to more malignant strains so far despite the virus and its variants spreading. Plus, mild symptoms when contagious are not indicators for long term covid damages on organs. Want to take the risk ? > That's how we beat flu, which, believe or not, was deadly in the past. We didn't beat flu. We still need vaccines every year. Believe it or not, it's still deadly. We have vaccines for Covid and it's still not enough to live like Covid is another flu. > Now we get millions of flu infections each year, but no one cares, because they are mild. Millions of covid infections. It's still not mild and way too soon to know if omicron is milder short term and milder long term. You are talking a distant hypothetical future. People were already saying that in january 2020. Didn't pan out. What's different now ? We got worse variants. It's time public voices stop comparing covid to flu. Covid is way more contagious than the flu. Flu patients in ICU don't need 7 or 8 nurses. It's a different beast and it hasn't yet taken every evolutionary paths it can take. Letting it rip through the population hoping it magically build a resistance ? Eugenics and wishful thinking. edit: > we'll get reinfected regularly, thus developing resistance to more malignant strains Omicron is telling us it doesn't care much about our previous wuhan/alpha/delta infections when we look at current numbers. Reinfections can send you to the ICU and then you toss a coin if you make it for one more year. How many times do you want to take that risk ? Once a year ? Are you in your thirties ? Then when your are ~45 and the risk of getting in the ICU gets higher than now, will you still take the risk to get Covid this year thinking you are building a resistance ? We don't build resistance to next year's flu when we age. If/Since covid will be seasonal/periodical and evolve it's likely we will regularly need boosters/new vaccines. And considering its high transmission capabilities we will still need masks and other preventive measures.
  - 988747 5y ago
    >> We didn't beat flu. We still need vaccines every year. Seriously? I thought flu vaccines were just a hipster thing: something you do to look cool, but they don't really matter much. In my country only 4% of people take them, and we don't have many flu-related deaths.
    - johnchristopher 5y ago
      Diabetics and older people are strongly advised to take it. That surely helped cementing the "it's a flu" when most of the deaths are old people. Also, we don't have many flu-related deaths because it either turns into emphyzema or other pulmonary complications which are the cause of death. Or the vaccine did its job.
ShrigmaMale 5y ago
Waiting decades with government policies in place and altered behavior is not a realistic option. Most people would rather risk infection over the long term.
imbnwa 5y ago
> Long term damage is not getting enough attention. Too bad all those back-to-office-adamant employers completely ignore this. Like, OK, I get infected cause I had to commute to work and then you fire me/lay me off and I'm left holding the bag, financially and physically cause you really wanted to make your leasing payments "worth it".
- spookthesunset 5y ago
  Yet somehow each and every day grocery store workers manage to go into their office. What makes you so special?
  - johnchristopher 5y ago
    Most likely, considering this is HN, s/he's moving bits around all day. Something that every day grocery store workers can't do remotely with the things they have to move around. Which reminds me that in the first lockdown, in my country, grocery stores workers were considered "essential" and were allowed to go to their workplace and work there.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - spookthesunset 5y ago
      If I was in charge I’d classify tech workers as non essential and not let them work. Make them go through unemployment for a while. I bet a whole lot of these privileged people would suddenly become a lot less “scared” of Covid… The amount of privilege that reeks from the tech sector is astronomical. I’ve never been more embarrassed working in t is industry than these days.
      - johnchristopher 5y ago
        > If I was in charge I’d classify tech workers as non essential and not let them work. Make them go through unemployment for a while. I bet a whole lot of these privileged people would suddenly become a lot less “scared” of Covid… Tech workers were classified as non essentials. That's why we got the whole remote thing. Other professions also got labelled non-essential and governments asked employers to put remote/wfh in place as much as possible and at some time made it mandatory. Being classified as a non-essential never meant you were de facto out of a job or prevented from working (Western Europe here). > Make them go through unemployment for a while. I bet a whole lot of these privileged people would suddenly become a lot less “scared” of Covid… Wait, what ? Why do you want to punish people who managed to keep their job because you don't like the fact they are scared of covid ? I won't say everything I am thinking but wishing people to lose their job because you think they are privileged and they are scared of covid is pretty fucked up. I am making €1750 net a month, in IT, I have a master degree. I don't feel privileged. > The amount of privilege that reeks from the tech sector is astronomical. I’ve never been more embarrassed working in t is industry than these days. Then follow your heart and go work in the service industry in a supermarket.
heavyset_go 5y ago
> In decades maybe we get a mild covid. That's incredibly quick in evolutionary terms. If COVID becomes milder, it may take many human lifetimes for that to occur. In the mean time, it can mutate into something stronger.
- johnchristopher 5y ago
  Agreed. I still have to come to terms to that myself so I use `decades` not to scare people too much but... also my understanding of the situation and evolution is not solid enough to get into an argument about decades vs lifetime so I stick to decades because it can also mean centuries :/.

988747 5y ago

> No. Covid reeinfects. There's only a short-lived immunity. So let's Omicron, or any other mild variant spread, we'll get reinfected regularly, thus developing resistance to more malignant strains. That's how we beat flu, which, believe or not, was deadly in the past. Now we get millions of flu infections each year, but no one cares, because they are mild.

johnchristopher 5y ago
> we'll get reinfected regularly, thus developing resistance to more malignant strains. Clearly not how it works and not what's happening. We are not developing resistance to more malignant strains so far despite the virus and its variants spreading. Plus, mild symptoms when contagious are not indicators for long term covid damages on organs. Want to take the risk ? > That's how we beat flu, which, believe or not, was deadly in the past. We didn't beat flu. We still need vaccines every year. Believe it or not, it's still deadly. We have vaccines for Covid and it's still not enough to live like Covid is another flu. > Now we get millions of flu infections each year, but no one cares, because they are mild. Millions of covid infections. It's still not mild and way too soon to know if omicron is milder short term and milder long term. You are talking a distant hypothetical future. People were already saying that in january 2020. Didn't pan out. What's different now ? We got worse variants. It's time public voices stop comparing covid to flu. Covid is way more contagious than the flu. Flu patients in ICU don't need 7 or 8 nurses. It's a different beast and it hasn't yet taken every evolutionary paths it can take. Letting it rip through the population hoping it magically build a resistance ? Eugenics and wishful thinking. edit: > we'll get reinfected regularly, thus developing resistance to more malignant strains Omicron is telling us it doesn't care much about our previous wuhan/alpha/delta infections when we look at current numbers. Reinfections can send you to the ICU and then you toss a coin if you make it for one more year. How many times do you want to take that risk ? Once a year ? Are you in your thirties ? Then when your are ~45 and the risk of getting in the ICU gets higher than now, will you still take the risk to get Covid this year thinking you are building a resistance ? We don't build resistance to next year's flu when we age. If/Since covid will be seasonal/periodical and evolve it's likely we will regularly need boosters/new vaccines. And considering its high transmission capabilities we will still need masks and other preventive measures.
- 988747 5y ago
  >> We didn't beat flu. We still need vaccines every year. Seriously? I thought flu vaccines were just a hipster thing: something you do to look cool, but they don't really matter much. In my country only 4% of people take them, and we don't have many flu-related deaths.
  - johnchristopher 5y ago
    Diabetics and older people are strongly advised to take it. That surely helped cementing the "it's a flu" when most of the deaths are old people. Also, we don't have many flu-related deaths because it either turns into emphyzema or other pulmonary complications which are the cause of death. Or the vaccine did its job.

ShrigmaMale 5y ago

Waiting decades with government policies in place and altered behavior is not a realistic option. Most people would rather risk infection over the long term.

imbnwa 5y ago

> Long term damage is not getting enough attention. Too bad all those back-to-office-adamant employers completely ignore this. Like, OK, I get infected cause I had to commute to work and then you fire me/lay me off and I'm left holding the bag, financially and physically cause you really wanted to make your leasing payments "worth it".

spookthesunset 5y ago
Yet somehow each and every day grocery store workers manage to go into their office. What makes you so special?
- johnchristopher 5y ago
  Most likely, considering this is HN, s/he's moving bits around all day. Something that every day grocery store workers can't do remotely with the things they have to move around. Which reminds me that in the first lockdown, in my country, grocery stores workers were considered "essential" and were allowed to go to their workplace and work there.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - spookthesunset 5y ago
    If I was in charge I’d classify tech workers as non essential and not let them work. Make them go through unemployment for a while. I bet a whole lot of these privileged people would suddenly become a lot less “scared” of Covid… The amount of privilege that reeks from the tech sector is astronomical. I’ve never been more embarrassed working in t is industry than these days.
    - johnchristopher 5y ago
      > If I was in charge I’d classify tech workers as non essential and not let them work. Make them go through unemployment for a while. I bet a whole lot of these privileged people would suddenly become a lot less “scared” of Covid… Tech workers were classified as non essentials. That's why we got the whole remote thing. Other professions also got labelled non-essential and governments asked employers to put remote/wfh in place as much as possible and at some time made it mandatory. Being classified as a non-essential never meant you were de facto out of a job or prevented from working (Western Europe here). > Make them go through unemployment for a while. I bet a whole lot of these privileged people would suddenly become a lot less “scared” of Covid… Wait, what ? Why do you want to punish people who managed to keep their job because you don't like the fact they are scared of covid ? I won't say everything I am thinking but wishing people to lose their job because you think they are privileged and they are scared of covid is pretty fucked up. I am making €1750 net a month, in IT, I have a master degree. I don't feel privileged. > The amount of privilege that reeks from the tech sector is astronomical. I’ve never been more embarrassed working in t is industry than these days. Then follow your heart and go work in the service industry in a supermarket.

heavyset_go 5y ago

> In decades maybe we get a mild covid. That's incredibly quick in evolutionary terms. If COVID becomes milder, it may take many human lifetimes for that to occur. In the mean time, it can mutate into something stronger.

johnchristopher 5y ago
Agreed. I still have to come to terms to that myself so I use `decades` not to scare people too much but... also my understanding of the situation and evolution is not solid enough to get into an argument about decades vs lifetime so I stick to decades because it can also mean centuries :/.