Thread by @VincentRK

I have a different take. In both Iceland & Malta, both 90% fully vaccinated, a rise in cases has not resulted in a similar rise in deaths. We don't have herd immunity against flu or the common cold. Vaccines work. I am confident COVID will be reduced to the cold with vaccines. 1/

https://twitter.com/eliaseythorsson/status/1424011542195023878

Now we are only in year one of vaccines and we will have boosters that help against variants.

I am not discounting the ability of Mild non life threatening COVID to cause long COVID type symptoms. A lot of viral infections do that. We have to find ways around it and treatments.

The reason we see a spike in cases is because the virus is mutating. And the variants are more vaccine evasive. This happens because we simply couldn't make or vaccinate 7 billion people overnight.

As more and more of the world is vaccinated this problem will reduce.

It's possible that we need boosters once a year if nasty variants keep emerging. Only time will tell. But we should not aim for some miraculous endpoint that's not humanly possible without permanent lockdown.

Vaccinate fast. The world. Reduce number of completely naive hosts.

In each country masks and all other precautions will need to continue until one can be confident that Covid infections are no longer occurring or until the rate of occurrence or complications is what's acceptable or feasible for that society— whatever saves the most lives.

I really love what @chrisfearne said.

The world would not have shut down if COVID deaths seen in July in Iceland & Malta relative to number of cases was all there was to COVID. (Note difference between cases/deaths in Malta in March vs July). Our goal should be to get the world as well vaccinated as Malta & Iceland

For reference: At its peak US had new daily deaths of >1 per 100,000 population due to COVID.

@sykristinsson — please give insights if I'm reading Iceland correctly. It's not as well vaccinated as Malta — 75% fully vaccinated vs 90%. But in both places COVID deaths during recent wave is much less than previous waves. Fully vaccinated seem well protected against deaths.