@ResIpsaLoquiturInterAlia
Are the scientists withholding some critical material discovery?
Would the new vaccines keep pace with the mutating strains?
2% of UK population now recorded infected. So what is the expected real rate of asymptomatic super spreading? More than 10%?
Well no one can predict how it will mutate, but the current new Kent strain they are sure the vaccine will protect against it, they are not sure about the South African strain but if not they say they can tweak in a matter of days, not the six weeks, then go into production.
As for the real rate, I don’t know, becayse so many more people are being tested now compare to last spring, however as hospital admissions are up and this strain is not more virulent. It would indicate more peoooe are infected now than there were in th spring.
If this continues at this pace the nhs would be breached in approx 3 weeks. So they need to stop us mingling and halt it. Whilst they get the vulnerable vaccinated.
As I wrote in another thread, people have to remember the flu has a ten percent death rate unvaccinated, much higher than Covid. Deaths annually from flu/influenza/pneumonia is approx 30k people per year, and that’s with the vaccinations.
The outbreaks are very similar to Covid, the highest amount being in care homes, nearly seventy percent, with schools, prisons, etc making up the rest. Flu also mutates every year. The fatalities are elderly or those with underlying conditions.
However we are not in lock down because of the flu. We understand who is at risk and vaccinate them, and we accept th death levels, and we get about our business. Vaccinated Covid will likely become like seasonal flu. In fact it’s likely it could be a double vaccine.
Once the vulnerable, like the flu, are vaccinated, then life can go back to normal. However if the flu was today unvaccinated we would also be in lockdown, as it is much much more deadly than Covid.