How much further can covid mutate?

[Thelm]

I’m just wondering. Is there a limit as to how far a virus can mutate? Are we going to still be in a race to contain it in five years time?

I just don’t know how this will end.

@MarshaBradyo

Zero Covid would have been possible if Johnson had listened to the scientists in February 2020.

Which scientists? SAGE?

I’d say Whitty knows his stuff

Not really - The UK "epidemic" plan was not to try to stop the outbreak and nobody on SAGE had the balls to query why - it's classic group think, where everyone assumes someone smarter than them has made the call for an important reason, when it was just something everyone overlooked.

It's the point Cummings made the other week, when he talked about us following the plan for the wrong virus. It's all documented.

So much as I detest Johnson, I can't really blame him for that particular screw up - his scientists told him firstly that covid wasn't serious and that it was unlikely to make it to the UK... and then that there was no point trying to stop it, our best plan was to just let it rip.

I saw Whitty quizzed on this months later - he was pretty broken up about it all I think. They've got the right people informing them since I think - since last September it's been hard to differentiate between what SAGE and Indie SAGE have been saying, which is how it should be.

@chesirecat99

I think it's a bit pointless trying to debate with Sally. She won't read any papers you post and all you'll get back is insults and wild claims without ever providing any supporting evidence.

You can play logical fallacy bingo with her posts though

Probably forever. I read somewhere that the 1918 flu virus is still with us (though not as deadly).

Except there is already an existing HUGE level of herd immunity against Measles, so stamping on outbreaks is easier. Yes it is on the rise though due to lower vaccination rates, but most babies are immunised. Interestingly though, before covid, NHS were planning to tackle the rise by giving those in their 40’s a measles booster as their immunity was starting to decrease. Those above (I think 50) have stronger natural immunity from actually catching measles. Covid put a stop to the measles boosters though.

[quote strangeshapedpotato]@chesirecat99

I think it's a bit pointless trying to debate with Sally. She won't read any papers you post and all you'll get back is insults and wild claims without ever providing any supporting evidence.

You can play logical fallacy bingo with her posts though [/quote]
I haven't posted any papers @strangeshapedpotato... I thought articles in layman's terms and Wikipedia would be more appropriate

*Why do you pretend a super vaccine that covers all variants of covid ( thousands of them such as the common cold which has never had any vaccine) will come out when flu vaccines cant do this having had decades of research where any flu vaccine is at best only around 60% effective?

I never made that claim - like oh so much of what you write it's a strawman.

I made two separate comments about different things - the first was a covid vaccine that could cope with multiple future variants. This is being actively worked on by several groups and given the recent (last 2 years) emergence of mRNA technology as a means to deliver human vaccines, I'm quite confident that we can get there, although it may take a couple of years.

I also referred to a paper which described the antibodies from a SARS-1 survivor that have been found to neutralise all human coronaviruses and mentioned that if we could create a vaccine that produced these antibodies, it would solve covid competely! That is a bit more of an ask though, but the existence of the antibodies shows it's possible.

@SallyBasingstoke

cheshirecat " I havent posted anything related to New zealand or Australia "

At 21.59 in what can only be described as long winded spiel to attempt to argue zero covid is possible you provided this link

www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m3859

In the first paragraph alone it mentions New Zealand twice attempting to draw parallels in your mind with here or else why would you post it.. perhaps you didn't read your own link

I haven't argued for zero COVID at all, just that @strangeshapedpotato's viewpoint is not laughable.

You are correct the letter from the British Medical Journal does mention New Zealand but I only posted that as an example of a scientist who believes zero COVID is the best strategy, Professor Martin McKee, Professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

@SallyBasingstoke

I mentioned 5G as something likely to interest you, because you seem to cling to every other conspiracy theory around.

Clearly that joke, despite you being the butt of it, sailed miles over your head.

@strangeshapedpotato

2) There's absolutely no guarantee that your immune system will take any notice of the booster. It's easy to train your immune system, it's harder to retrain it. It's quite possible that after each successive booster, we achieve a lower protection than before.

Why do flu, MMR, tetanus and other vaccines with boosters work then?

sally you are fairly obnoxious aren't you? I must say the debate from potato and cheshire strikes me as intelligent, interesting, and very enlightening, but it is constantly interrupted by your raucous, rude, slightly incoherent ramblings

sally well, as cheshire studied epidemiology at Oxford, I'm not sure she's THAT intellectually challenged

I've just wasted 20 mins of my life on this bunfight!
How did a pandemic become so very devisive?
Not just on this thread, everywhere...

Well, Sally, having read cheshire's posts, I'm not in any doubt that she knows a thing or two. Her knowledge, and Potatos, is rather clear. Nit picking over New Zealand I couldn't give a shit about, however.

I don’t get the need to argue about whether or not zero covid is actually a scientific strategy. Everyone knows that it is a scientific strategy that is worth considering in some places, and that their are papers on it, but didn’t @strangeshapedpotato actually agree that it’s totally, completely impossible in the UK? Maybe the word ‘non-viable’ rather than ‘laughable’ is better then.

Yes OK sally, fine. Apparently you have a degree in misconstruing everyone's posts and having a strong desire to be the most featured name on the thread.