[ztjio]

It's not that simple. First of all, most people do not develop permanent immunity to the cold which is usually one of the first 4 known human transmissible corona viruses. So there is no reason to think we'll develop long term immunity to this one either.

Second, our reaction has be abysmal which, similar to the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, massively increases the chance of a second or even third wave of massive infection spread. That will be on many peoples's minds.

And one more thing I want to touch on so people here can get it through their thick heads: just because the death rate is supposedly "low" and "only" impacts old people mostly, that doesn't mean it doesn't impact YOU. If YOU have an emergency and the hospital is packed with COVID-19 patients, it doesn't really matter what you have, you are affected.

Even ignoring the ethical implications of just letting people die from this, I think most people who would do that are unlikely to ignore implications to themselves so figure out where you land or not, it doesn't matter, the goal of keeping hospitals from being overloaded affects everyone.

[hfufigivknog]

Corona viruses are not “the cold.” Rhinovirus causes the common cold and corona viruses cause 10% of cold cases. Just like other corona viruses, they make a recurring appearance. But this is not because they mutate in the way the flu does. No corona viruses mutate in the way that the flu does. If you have some evidence to prove me wrong then produce it.

You definitely develop immunity to viruses that sicken you. For the average person who is healthy.

If there is a second wave it will only be because of overly aggressive quarantining. This is why I said it won’t happen. For it to work, it would have to be air tight. All these young kids staying home are just saving fuel for a second wave. Old people ought to stay home and let younger people gain herd immunity as quickly as possible.

[azhawkes]

That's my inclination as well. Isolate and protect the high-risk people, and let the rest of us get herd immunity quickly. Especially the kids, who are apparently unaffected by this thing. That's the silver lining here.

On the other hand, if you prevent the kids and young healthy people from getting it, you pretty much guarantee a large vector for continuous outbreaks well into the future, which may end up killing far more people in the long run and at a much higher economic cost.

I'm not an epidemiologist, so if anyone here is, please share why this approach isn't getting more consideration.

[chengangcs]

Singapore scientist just published a result on bioRxiv. They have found a 382-nt deletion during the evolution of this coronavirus. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.11.987222v1

[scotty79]

> If there is a second wave it will only be because of overly aggressive quarantining.

Common cold causing coronaviruses have recurring waves every 2-4 years. If they don't mutate like flu it means that immunity is not that long lasting.

[hfufigivknog]

No, it doesn’t necessarily mean that. If you find a paper or expert testimony that totally unambiguously shows that I’m wrong, I will totally retract what I’ve said.