According to a review in the premier scientific journal, Nature, “The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the most formidable challenge to humanity in a century. It is widely believed that...

... prepandemic normalcy will never return until a safe and effective vaccine strategy becomes available and a global vaccination programme is implemented successfully”.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41577-020-00434-6

May I make it clear that I’m not among the group which “widely believes” this notion?

An alternative viewpoint is that, as we learn more about this coronavirus, we will recognise that, from a medical perspective, it represents a threat to health of a similar magnitude to that from the more severe seasonal influenza viruses. To be clear, absolutely non-trivial.

However, we may in due course ruefully regard our global responses to SARS-COV-2 as significant contributors to morbidity & mortality otherwise ascribed to the virus itself. In other words, we’ve made it worse than it was. I very much doubt, though, that those charged with...

...the difficult decisions are ever going to admit that their orders & edicts may have increased the illness & deaths experienced by their populations. That’s when I feel fear. Now those same people appear to “widely believe” that a significant proportion of the world’s...

...population must to vaccinated against a virus to which a substantial minority have already gained immunity. There is no calculus which I can envisage that will result in the outcome sought, “prepandemic normalcy”. Our leaders need to understand that these decisions...

... are not for them alone to make. If there was a proposal to offer vaccination to those people who are at elevated risk of bad outcomes from the virus & also to others for whom peace of mind will return only once they’ve been vaccinated, I think I could get behind that.