Earlier quoted context omitted.
Third option: we fight it with drugs and we prevent / reduce hospitalizations, and it becomes a disease like every other.
The obvious comparison is tuberculosis, where vaccination (albeit not universal vaccination) is a critical component of our control measures. Even if we find a strongly effective treatment, which I agree there's reason for optimism on, we'll still want a vaccine.
Covid-19 Vaccine Candidates
61–65 of 65 posts
Re: Covid-19 Vaccine Candidates
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Previous pandemics (most notably 1918 Spanish flu) have “disappeared” in the sense that they had either exhausted the pool of hosts and had no natural reservoir with which to fall back on or they mutated to become less deadly or less symptomatic.
How does mutating eradicate the non-mutated individuals?
Re: Covid-19 Vaccine Candidates
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Previous pandemics (most notably 1918 Spanish flu) have “disappeared” in the sense that they had either exhausted the pool of hosts and had no natural reservoir with which to fall back on or they mutated to become less deadly or less symptomatic.
How does mutating eradicate the non-mutated individuals?
Re: Covid-19 Vaccine Candidates
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
The obvious comparison is tuberculosis, where vaccination (albeit not universal vaccination) is a critical component of our control measures. Even if we find a strongly effective treatment, which I agree there's reason for optimism on, we'll still want a vaccine.
Yeah, lockdown == prevent. ICU == treat. At the moment thats all we have
The problem is that most of the pharmacological evidence is sparse and anecdotal at worst (except for remedisivir, and now lopinavir/ritonavir/ribavirin/interferon beta). Trials are ongoing and should at least give better answers, or hints.
Protocols change among countries or even across hospitals, so it's kind of hard to figure out which treatment is best. There's a lot of road to cover to come to proper treatments, but if we are to believe case reports, it is undoubtedly much better than when the pandemic started hitting the West.
Re: Covid-19 Vaccine Candidates
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are plenty of people under 65 who are being killed or suffering major medical issues due to COVID-19. A friend of mine is in great health, 40, and spent 6 days in the ICU and may never recover fully (lung function damage). A vaccine would be great.
As I understand it its a very small proportion of people that age.