Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

It is called a political hoax by those with TDS.

nadelewitz Loc: Ithaca NY

1. A vaccine for a specific virus does not absolutely 100% guarantee that you cannot be infected by that virus.

2. Viruses can mutate, so if you are vaccinated against a specific strain, you can still be infected by another strain.

Ever hear of annual flu vaccines? They are formulated for the specific viruses that are expected to be a problem each year. There are many more flu viruses that are NOT part of the vaccine package each year.

DennyT Loc: Central Missouri woods

Don’t confuse those suffering from TWS (trump worship syndrome ) with facts.

htbrown Loc: San Francisco Bay Area

I get a flu shot every year, because immunity to a flu does not last all year. The flu shot (a vaccine) gives me that immunity (at least, to those strains included in the shot) for the coming flu season.

There are coronoviruses (virii?) where immunity lasts a very short period. The common cold is one of them. A vaccine, if developed, wouldn't get you through the cold season.

No one yet knows how long the immunity conferred by Covid-19 will last. It's a close relative to SARS, so there is some hope it will be permanent. In that case a vaccine, once developed, would be needed once. But it might be like the flu, and be needed periodically. People's best guess today is that it will likely last longer than the cold, but no one yet knows for sure.

If it's like polio or SARS, or even the flu, a vaccine is possible and useful. If it's like the common cold, we're in deep doo-doo.

There are reports of a small number of people who appear to have become reinfected with Covid-19 after having been cleared of it. We don't know enough to evaluate this group, but there may be several possibilities, any or all of which may apply:
- It could be a testing failure. Tests, properly conducted, may have false positives and false negatives. And human error could mean that some individual tests weren't valid at all.
- It could be you need a minimum viral load to develop immunity. It is worth noting that those who appear reinfected also seem to have had light or asymptomatic cases. But the sample size it too small to know if that will hold true over time.
- Some individuals may not develop immunity as readily as others. As a personal example, my brother had measles three times as a boy. Most of us got it once and developed an immunity, but he did not.

Charlie157 Loc: San Diego, CA

I remember that along with the polio shots (Salk Vaccine). You don't see those problems around anymore, except if you live in a very poor country. Some of the illnesses we are currently vaccinating for, early childhood vaccination, are coming back. It appears to be due to less children
are being vaccinated.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Well written and I agree with your analysis. The virus is as old as the formation of DNA on earth so it has always been here and I suspect that it always will be here. Although it is not alive as science defines life, it cannot continue to exist in a viralant way for too long without a host. Bacteria can live and multiply for very long periods of time and do not depend upon a host, just ideal conditions and a source of nourishment. Molds are a threat to humans too for what it's worth with their mycotoxins.

Two things that are often forgotten are that life is that although an individual life is fragile, life on earth is resilient and species come and species go.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Please create you own thread as this is a political question.

Do note the thread title.

rfmaude41 Loc: Lancaster, Texas (DFW area)

WHO retracted this statement withing the last 48 hours; do you really "trust them" ????

TonyBot

Uhhh ...

"Annual flu" *has* killed more, but the flu numbers are derived for an *annual* period - twelve months, not two. At this point, we've already outnumbered the worst of the SARS and MERS (total annual) mortality.

There are other, more knowledgeable, data posted here, but if one wishes to compare "the flu" to COVID-19, please use the same basis.

sirlensalot Loc: Arizona

Good post. Thank you.

oregonfrank Loc: Astoria, Oregon

I did not consider my post as either political or unrelated to viral pandemics. I agree that my post was tangential, but was related to the discussion about dangerous viruses and how they impact humans. The congestion of human populations on earth is neither conservative nor liberal, but it is a factor in the frequency of pandemics in future decades. You do have a choice not to respond. There certainly are many posts to which I do not respond. Frank

ricardo00

Good point Tony. Also, since testing for the SARS CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) was not readily available during this two month period, the number of deaths attributable to this virus is sure to be an underestimate. Also I would not say that we have "become complacent" about the flu. Many of us (myself included) get vaccinated for the flu every year. And there is still lots of active research on how to make the flu vaccine more effective.

Najataagihe

There are only three ways to reduce a population, human or otherwise:

Disease, Famine and War.


Any population, plant or animal, will grow to the limit of its resources.


War and Disease, while a threat to the individual, extend the lifetime of the species by conserving resources and developing stronger genetic material.

Without War and Disease, the species will expand until Famine rears its ugly head, at which time War breaks out in the fight for resources and Disease makes its entrance to feast on the weakened immune systems.

A bit depressing, if you think about it.

oregonfrank Loc: Astoria, Oregon

Najataagihe, you may be right, but I hope not. I think it's worth a try to get a gradual stabilization of the world's population, and possibly a decline, via education, incentives, and more availability of birth control.
This would be a long term approach, decades at least. Appreciate your comment. Frank

Paul Diamond Loc: Atlanta, GA, USA

I would rather trust the opinions of 3 randomly selected Medical Doctors over all of the politicians of the last 30 years, combined. Give me the pros to make medical decisions anytime, compared to amateurs holding political office for a few year until we learn that they are unsuited and unqualified to assume the mantle of responsibility of making decisions that affect all Americans. Our founding forefathers were very, very concerned about exactly this. They knew their fellow founders included all colors of opinion, bias, greed/personal gain, etc. And they were concerned about neutralizing the possible shift too far to the right or left.

Let's fund the real pros and depend upon them to tell us the truth about medical topics we are concerned about.