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All of this is an object lesson in why we haven’t developed effective coronavirus vaccines in the past-it isn’t just that the diseases were mild enough not to bother. They change so much, and with such unpredictability that the attempt is like trying to catch shadows 1/n https://twitter.com/alistairhaimes/status/1359829236165599232
Of course, that doesn’t in any way make the current crop useless-but they aren’t going to be as useful as people want them to be. As disease modifiers-great-but many people, even when vaccinated, will still get Covid, but, hopefully, not struggling so much with it. 2/n
Closing the borders is stupid and pointless. The various ‘variants’ can be expected to sink in and out of existence, mostly unmarked, everywhere. We’ll only know if a dominant type when it shows up as a healthcare pressure problem. 3/n
And as for ‘0 Covid’ Australia and NZ-their leaders know very well that all they’ve done is converted themselves into the immunological equivalent of Royston Vasey-a local place for local people and, unless they open up, on the way to becoming stunted and inbred & vulnerable 4/n
Finally, the point needs to be made. Given the absence of reinfections of any clinical relevance with any variants, longest data in existence suggests that infection induced immunity is not only a thing-but a very good thing for those lucky enough to have it and be well. 5/n
So what to do? We need to talk about the NHS. It’s going to have to operationalise it’s Covid surge response and make it normal.
We need to talk about living with Covid-it isn’t going away.
We need to talk about... obesity. It’s the one thing people can do something about and 6/n
We need to talk about living with Covid-it isn’t going away.
We need to talk about... obesity. It’s the one thing people can do something about and 6/n
We need to talk about the lack of humanity that we have normalised as we twist and turn and avoid and refuse to look and fret about a new virus that we are going to be dealing with for years-just because a bunch of ignorant politicians gave us permission to.
And lastly, we must recognise what Covid really is-a great revealer of vulnerabilities. That the poorest have suffered most. That we’ve consigned the very young and the very old to miserable lives and lonely deaths. That we’ve sacrificed rights for a mirage of safety. For shame.
