[nednar]

If recovered people have longer term protection than vaccinated people (which is one possible interpretation of the headline's statement), would it make sense to first vaccinate someone and then expose them to the real virus, thereby generating the benefits with a much much lower risk or maybe even zero risk?

[gurleen_s]

I don’t know anything about how effective that might be, but I imagine the logistics of transporting a live, deadly virus would be a nightmare.

[nednar]

In many locations you have hospitals close by with covid stations. So you could bring the people to the virus.

[gls2ro]

Wouldnt this just create the environment for a more resistant virus in a shorter period of time?

I did not calculated the chances yet but here is what my probability intuition is saying

Having 50% of population go through virus in one year creates a less fit environment for a more resistant mutation than having 50% of population being exposed to virus in 2-3 months.

Like more encounters over a shorter period of time is a good environment to allow survival of resistant mutations.

[insaneirish]

And that would work how, exactly?

[nednar]

For me, this would be a point where I would fully rely on the experts for deciding how to implement that step and check if the plan is feasible. I don't recommend executing such ideas without syncing with authorities and experts.

That shouldn't stop us from brain storming, though, and allow experts to decide, if it's an interesting idea or stupid.

[sebmellen]

Walk the people through the respiratory ICU ward without PPE? Not endorsing it, just brainstorming...

[blhack]

That will probably happen naturally. People tend to alter their behavior a lot after getting vaccinated.

[singhrac]

I mean this seems like a great way to create vaccine resistant variants... but it's inevitable I guess.

[garmaine]

Why? Make the patient catch Covid… so that they don’t later catch Covid?

[nednar]

Well, if vaccination does not protect you for a lifetime, but only for a year or so, and a survived infection protects you for a lifetime, then getting infected while vaccinated should get you the +lifetime bonus.

And you will infect a lot fewer people, maybe zero, for the rest of your life, too. Should also help with avoiding future pandemics from this virus.