[quote TheSunIsStillShining]@notgotthejob
or maybe they will. If there's a new variant that evades vacc protection then we can start this whole rollercoaster from the total beginning. Hence the point of limiting potential spread by using a combination of measures that work.
This is exactly the type of event that I would classify to "better be safe than sorry". But as I said: it seems that i am in the very minority with this view.
Most people are fine with letting it rip and let's see what happens. Because it is only dangerous to the elderly (and they are vaxxed) and it poses zero danger to kids, as they can't catch it. Why would they bother with actual facts?[/quote]
I'm with you. I think everyone's decided based on no evidence that covid's just going to turn into another common cold virus. Covid has many features that make that incredibly unlikely. The most important of these is the lack of selection pressure for it to become less deadly since the most infectious period is several days before it makes you very ill.
Secondly, the spike protein of SARS-COV2 contains a region that is highly similar to the bacterial superantigen staphylococcal enterotoxin B. This has been shown to bind with high affinity to t cell receptors and induce a hyperinflammatory response. This motif is not found in the common cold Corona viruses but MERS contains something similar.
www.pnas.org/content/117/41/25254
Thirdly, most of the common cold Corona viruses gain entry to the cell by binding to 9-O-acetylated sialic acids. NL63 is the only one that uses the same receptor as SARS-COV2, ACE2. NL63 has a weak affinity for the receptor whereas SARS-COV2 has a very strong affinity. This strong affinity is responsible for some of its pathogenesis since ACE2 is found on a wide range of human cells and is involved important regulatory pathways within the body.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/prot.26024
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32418199/
I could go on all day about this but TL;DR: SARS-COV2 is not, and never will be just a cold