4 ms·

We'll see if varicella stays gone. It's tricky in that it can embed itself in the host genome and come back later. That means that until the last person exposed

by IX-103 2y ago

We'll see if varicella stays gone. It's tricky in that it can embed itself in the host genome and come back later. That means that until the last person exposed to the virus dies, we can't really consider it gone. Good luck convincing people to continue vaccinating for a disease no one has seen in a couple decades. Of course, if varicella was able to infect germ-line cells it would be even worse... COVID on the other hand doesn't have such a mechanism, and just relies on being really contagious. So if everyone would stay up to date in their boosters and continue masking in public places, we may be able to get rid of it in a couple of years.

vlovich123 2y ago
> So if everyone would stay up to date in their boosters and continue masking in public places, we may be able to get rid of it in a couple of years. By that logic we'd have gotten rid of the flu. Vaccines for rapidly mutating viruses like flu and COVID can't keep up and remain an epidemic. The only disease we've actually been able to eliminate worldwide due to vaccines is smallpox. We'd have gotten rid of measles too if crazies hadn't decided the MMR vaccine causes autism due to criminally fraudulent research.
- zehaeva 2y ago
  Didn't one strain of the flu become extinct during the pandemic because we masked up and staying away from each other for a year? One would think that if we just kept that up we'd get rid of all the others. https://www.npr.org/2024/10/18/nx-s1-5155997/influenza-strains-disappearance-attributed-to-covid-protocols-alters-2024-flu-shot https://www.npr.org/2024/10/18/nx-s1-5155997/influenza-strai...
  - vlovich123 2y ago
    It's really hard to draw causal links here. It could be any number of factors or required all of them together. In fact, if that had worked, why didn't COVID or other strains die too? And China had much more severe & prolonged lockdowns but that didn't eliminate anything extra for them. Don't underestimate the impact of stock viral interference - flu & COVID are both respiratory infections and COVID was much more infectious. Some flu strains probably just couldn't remain competitive with the combined set of other flu and COVID strains. While masking and social distancing have a beneficial impact on limiting the spread of respiratory diseases, there are practical reasons why it doesn't work to eliminate it altogether and ignores the possibility and likelihood of other resevoirs to reintroduce the disease. For example, if North America remains masked & socially isolated by the virus persists in Europe, then as soon as North America opens up you'll get the virus in North America again. And imaging a simultaneous world wide lock down is a laugh - even during COVID governments were not globally coordinated and even within national governments there was mixed local coordination. Aside from all that, let's say it was purely a result of masking and social distancing. The consequences of that were quite sever & catastrophic, not to mention that no one actually stayed away vs limited their normal contacts & there were plenty of practical reasons it wasn't possible (e.g. getting groceries). Life involves death & risk and it's pretty clear that even before the vaccines became available many people were not OK with the tradeoff COVID entailed (e.g. Florida).

by IX-103 2y ago

vlovich123 2y ago

> So if everyone would stay up to date in their boosters and continue masking in public places, we may be able to get rid of it in a couple of years. By that logic we'd have gotten rid of the flu. Vaccines for rapidly mutating viruses like flu and COVID can't keep up and remain an epidemic. The only disease we've actually been able to eliminate worldwide due to vaccines is smallpox. We'd have gotten rid of measles too if crazies hadn't decided the MMR vaccine causes autism due to criminally fraudulent research.

zehaeva 2y ago
Didn't one strain of the flu become extinct during the pandemic because we masked up and staying away from each other for a year? One would think that if we just kept that up we'd get rid of all the others. https://www.npr.org/2024/10/18/nx-s1-5155997/influenza-strains-disappearance-attributed-to-covid-protocols-alters-2024-flu-shot https://www.npr.org/2024/10/18/nx-s1-5155997/influenza-strai...
- vlovich123 2y ago
  It's really hard to draw causal links here. It could be any number of factors or required all of them together. In fact, if that had worked, why didn't COVID or other strains die too? And China had much more severe & prolonged lockdowns but that didn't eliminate anything extra for them. Don't underestimate the impact of stock viral interference - flu & COVID are both respiratory infections and COVID was much more infectious. Some flu strains probably just couldn't remain competitive with the combined set of other flu and COVID strains. While masking and social distancing have a beneficial impact on limiting the spread of respiratory diseases, there are practical reasons why it doesn't work to eliminate it altogether and ignores the possibility and likelihood of other resevoirs to reintroduce the disease. For example, if North America remains masked & socially isolated by the virus persists in Europe, then as soon as North America opens up you'll get the virus in North America again. And imaging a simultaneous world wide lock down is a laugh - even during COVID governments were not globally coordinated and even within national governments there was mixed local coordination. Aside from all that, let's say it was purely a result of masking and social distancing. The consequences of that were quite sever & catastrophic, not to mention that no one actually stayed away vs limited their normal contacts & there were plenty of practical reasons it wasn't possible (e.g. getting groceries). Life involves death & risk and it's pretty clear that even before the vaccines became available many people were not OK with the tradeoff COVID entailed (e.g. Florida).