[saberdancer]

If "normal" variant is more virulent, it should spread faster than other variants and will be dominant. If you vaccinate which eradicates "normal" variant than those less virulent strain which may be vaccine resistant will get opportunity to spread. That is if such variants exist.

Problem is that there is no alternative. You either vaccinate or let it run through your population. With IFR of 0.5-1% that is really hard choice to make.

[dehrmann]

> With IFR of 0.5-1% that is really hard choice to make.

I'm getting the sense that there's little public appetite for waiting another 6-9 months for a new vaccine. This might change as more people get the virus, but there's a good chance 10-15% of Americans have already had or currently have the virus, so if that didn't scare people already, I'm not sure if another month of full ICUs will.

[saberdancer]

This is the biggest problem. People are losing faith in the restrictions and are starting to believe into various conspiracy theories. Most of this is due to inability to distinguish between accurate and false information.

Another problem is that CDC and other agencies at first were openly lying and trying to downplay the virus or say how masks were not effective. This leads to people not trusting what they say because everyone can remember how they were against masks and now are in favor of masks. Then you add in politicians with mixed messages and you get highly doubtful public.

IFR is around 1% in the western world. That is incredibly high for something that could become as seasonal as flu.