| > Then, over the last half century, symptoms for Marek’s worsened. Paralysis was more permanent; brains more quickly turned to mush. Sigh. Could the author choose more inflammatory language? This is half of the problem with Covid-related reporting today: hack journalists who simply cannot resist using horror-movie language to describe illness. > Not trying to raise alarm here or say that this necessarily will happen with SARS-CoV-2, there are tons of big differences. In general, we should expect it to become less lethal over time, but the vaccines may have introduced a confounding factor to the usual selection for milder disease. As I said, I think that's an over-statement, having read the original paper. But sure, theoretically, if you have a vaccine that only partially protects against some really severe strain, that strain could escape and go on to become more severe over time. I'm not sure what we're supposed to do with this information. Not vaccinate? Stay inside forever and suck our thumbs? In chickens, we probably don't care enough to invest a ton of money into in creating a new vaccine every year. In humans, that's not a problem. If a more virulent form of SARS comes along that escapes the vaccines, we'll make a new vaccine. We're getting pretty good at it now! (I realize you're not on this side of the argument. I'm just reacting generally.) |
Switch from vaccinating everyone to vaccinating the most vulnerable and using antivirals to treat the illness when it's severe.
> If a more virulent form of SARS comes along that escapes the vaccines, we'll make a new vaccine. We're getting pretty good at it now!
And what if we can't one year --- for any reason? Then billions of people have their brains turn to mush. I don't want human survival to depend on an annual drug refresh.