If any country around the world signalled tomorrow that a strain of COVID-19 has emerged that is significantly more lethal despite vaccines, and due to original antigenic sin, we can’t easily vaccinate against it…
Every single MP should be made aware of what the potential damage could be. From the confirmed neuropathology and autoimmune issues, to the projected pathology and human lifespan we may expect. ->
This is critical for future planning in every area of life, from what age people should plan to start a family, to how mortgages and life insurance should be planned.
I don’t believe we need to be locked down forever to achieve it and there is good evidence for that.
I don’t believe it is a permanent state. Mitigations are needed at all times for many years so they need to be smart and tolerable.
When we have defeated COVID-19, and it will happen at some point in time, there will be other pandemics and epidemics. Other airborne diseases.
So no,life isn’t going to be perfectly safe again. It never was in the past. We can deal with it though, & maybe make it even better.
Better vaccines will come. Therapeutics are being made. We know how these viruses get about, and we know how to stop them getting about. Plenty to be hopeful about.
In my view lockdowns absolutely were needed in the beginning.
We weren’t ready.
People think that getting ready means vaccinate & that is partly the solution. We should have also been spending the last 18 months teaching people how to wear respirators, and cleaning the air.
Lockdowns still have a place in disease management… in countries that don’t have access to vaccines, in case of a resistant variant, and early in an outbreak to try and get ahead of the curve… but they are a very blunt instrument. Severe side effects.
The side effects of lockdown in an unvaccinated population are small compared to not locking down though.
But… if we have continuous settings that work to suppress disease transmission. Like ventilation and respirators… even early outbreaks may not propagate as well. ->