Like the article I think the deaths may be part of the past, but we will continue to see more waves over the next decade. I also think these will be disruptive just do to the sheer numbers sick like omicron. Basically there is no end to April 2020.
“The immunity provided by vaccine and prior infection are both high but not complete (i.e., not 100%).
Multiple studies have shown that antibody titers correlate with protection at a population level, but protective titers at the individual level remain unknown.
Whereas there is a wide range in antibody titers in response to infection with SARS-CoV-2, completion of a primary vaccine series, especially with mRNA vaccines, typically leads to a more consistent and higher-titer initial antibody response.”
So considering that 70%+ of the US had been vaccinated, and something like 30-50% (with significant vaccine overlap) had already been infected before Omicron... I don't think Omicron is going to change the immunization game. Coronaviruses, like the common cold, seem pretty resistant to our immune system, both in terms of breadth of variants and capacity to elude existing resistances just a few months after initial infection. Unless we make some great leap in immune technology (a 100% efficacy vaccine, for instance), it seems like covid is going to become endemic, because it's simply too hard to eradicate. And it'll just keep circulating in the population, mutating, forever.
Anyway, curious if you have thoughts on this -- I just don't think we'll immunize our way out of covid based on what I just said. My best hope is that variants like Omicron that don't cause as many deaths/major symptoms start to dominate -- but considering covid typically spreads before it kills victims, the only pressure toward mild symptoms comes from the general pressure to avoid wasting energy killing your victims when you could spread instead.
Human behavior in the USA has me convinced that by the summer everyone is just going to start pretending covid doesn't exist again, and then next winter we're going to have a massive spike of another variant again. And we'll have to hope that one is less lethal than Omicron, since we'll have a hard time getting anybody to mask at all by then.
1. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-br...
That is exactly what i think is actually happening / happened, my case using other words. It has been like this for any other pandemic, the only difference is this time we were able to flatten/proloung the curve to some degree by means of prevention and healthcare.
Over about a year, they also did not observe a statistically significant waning of natural immunity.
I'm more hopeful based on that.
Omicron is contagious enough to expect nearly everyone will be infected.
We call this mother nature's vaccine mandate program.
Was nice for everyone to have a laugh. So far a good portion have went through Omicron. I caught OG Covid very early on. From what I see Omicron is far less severe most of the time.
