11-03-2020, 07:14 AM
(This post was last modified: 11-03-2020, 07:16 AM by OutsiderFan.)
Yesterday I got a call from my friend since Kindergarten and learned he and his SO got Covid in early October. They live in Santa Clara County, and both get significant outdoor exercise, but it's possible they were infected in Tahoe. He told me both of them were being extremely cautious and can't figure out where they got it, though he knows he got it from her. The only time they were "in the wild" and massless was an outside dinner in Tahoe with nobody especially near.
The woman who gets sinus infections couple times a year thought she had another one, not Covid, but then after she got a fever, tested and was positive. Then she had an accelerated heart beat and lost taste/smell. My friend presented no symptoms other than exhaustion before testing, but he also worked a 15 hour day and thought it was due to that. He only was tested because she was positive. He never would have known he had it and would have likely infected others if she wasn't tested. He too lost his taste/smell, but that was it.
Anyway, as we were talking, he told me he's been doing some research and learned something I hadn't heard yet that was a bit concerning. That is the possibility of the virus becoming endemic. This means there would be so much virus and so many strains of it that an effective vaccine won't be possible because there are too many variations of the virus. He compared it to the flu, and how there are so many flu strains that world health experts can only pick one to vaccinate against, and if they pick the wrong one, the flu shots won't be that effective. This explains why flu shot works sometimes and not others; if you are exposed to the flu your vaccine was intended to resist, it works. If you get exposed to different strain, you get sick.
His thrust was that if Covid becomes too prevalent, with too many mutations, an annual Covid vaccine would be needed just like the annual flu vaccine. And for the same reasons, the Covid vaccine will never be 100% full proof. This would truly suck, and would also be something we could have prevented.
IOW, the herd immunity idea is even dumber than you thought, because every new infection increases number of mutations, which makes developing a one vaccine kills Covid that much more difficult. Scott Atlas isn't factoring this possible reality into his ill-conceived equation, is he? Anyway, the price tag for this pandemic has a lot higher to go, on multiple fronts, no matter what we do, but there are better ways than others to get it under control.
The woman who gets sinus infections couple times a year thought she had another one, not Covid, but then after she got a fever, tested and was positive. Then she had an accelerated heart beat and lost taste/smell. My friend presented no symptoms other than exhaustion before testing, but he also worked a 15 hour day and thought it was due to that. He only was tested because she was positive. He never would have known he had it and would have likely infected others if she wasn't tested. He too lost his taste/smell, but that was it.
Anyway, as we were talking, he told me he's been doing some research and learned something I hadn't heard yet that was a bit concerning. That is the possibility of the virus becoming endemic. This means there would be so much virus and so many strains of it that an effective vaccine won't be possible because there are too many variations of the virus. He compared it to the flu, and how there are so many flu strains that world health experts can only pick one to vaccinate against, and if they pick the wrong one, the flu shots won't be that effective. This explains why flu shot works sometimes and not others; if you are exposed to the flu your vaccine was intended to resist, it works. If you get exposed to different strain, you get sick.
His thrust was that if Covid becomes too prevalent, with too many mutations, an annual Covid vaccine would be needed just like the annual flu vaccine. And for the same reasons, the Covid vaccine will never be 100% full proof. This would truly suck, and would also be something we could have prevented.
IOW, the herd immunity idea is even dumber than you thought, because every new infection increases number of mutations, which makes developing a one vaccine kills Covid that much more difficult. Scott Atlas isn't factoring this possible reality into his ill-conceived equation, is he? Anyway, the price tag for this pandemic has a lot higher to go, on multiple fronts, no matter what we do, but there are better ways than others to get it under control.