Interesting from National Geographic
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Thanks… reading that felt somewhat sobering but also encouraging at the same time. The beginning of vaccination makes me feel like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, but it was a good reminder that it’s not going to be like a light switch turning off. But it’s amazing how much knowledge and data our collective human organizations will have after this in comparison to any prior pandemic. I’m sure that will only help us.
I didn’t realize so many colds used to be much worse – that was very interesting. I’m curious, do you or any other doctor here have any opinion about how a year of off-and-on quarantine will affect children’s immune systems? For example:
on average, humans are first exposed to all four of these coronaviruses between the ages of three and five—part of the first wave of infections that young children experience.
It has been an odd year for us in that most of my kids haven’t really had much in the way of illness – it will probably feel scary once they actually do get something even if it’s just a cold. I wonder whether young children will be “behind” in building up normal immunity?
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Not only that:
New SARS-CoV-2 variants also make widespread vaccination and other transmission-blocking measures, such as face masks and distancing, more crucial than ever.
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There are still unknowns about the Covid virus that make precise predictions difficult. Once a large part of the world population is vaccinated (that will take many months, possibly years) it may well become more easy to manage. But it is likely to require continued vaccinations at least annually for quite large segments of our populations to keep the most vunerable safe in the same way many need annual vaccinations against flu. Nor can we rule out even more infectious mutations occurring that will challenge the vaccines we have.
There is also the danger that if the richer nations hoard the vaccines to ourselves, then large scale infections will happen in poorer countries. This would not only be immoral it would increase the likelyhood of more infections variants emerging to re-infect us.
One thorny issue will be the Pharma companies in the US and Europe keeping vaccine information to themselves (property rights and patents) and not sharing it with other companies around the world, who may not have a vaccine they have developed but could help in mass production. Surely it should be a case of people before profits.
Looks like chances of getting out of this world alive are getting slimmer, eh?
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Yeah, the chances of dying are pretty much 100%.
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As even the Russians and Chinese practice enlightened self interest (it’s human), then no one is going to be hoarding vaccines after fully inoculating their own people when there(!) are continents full of mutating plague knocking at the door. The problem will be getting the vaccines up country in the third world. I am never going in to a store again without a mask, in the cold season. I get acute secondary infections after an ordinary cold anyway, despite pneumonia vaccination, and they will finally kill me if nothing else does. Hopefully the techniques being learned against Covid will help against flu and even the common cold, at least in ameliorating them.
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I watched a guy today wearing a mask pull it down and sneeze and then put it back up. It was like… and told him he’s almost there. Then I seriously watched the same guy try to push open the pull doors.
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