05-19-2020, 10:23 PM
(05-19-2020, 09:59 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: It seems that one is definitely in the works. However, are vaccines even a real safety net? I mean, every year untold millions of people get the flu vaccine, yet every year it seems like a lot of people die, because of a "new strain". It's already been mentioned that coronavirus is mutating into different strains. With that in mind, how do we ever resume normal life?
We don't shut down society over the flu every year. If this becomes another common virus that comes around every year, we'll just have to learn how to deal with it.
Vaccines are one of the great public health victories over infectious disease.
I’ve looked at the epidemiology of vaccine preventable disease before and after vaccination programs in the US and abroad and the incidence, prevalence, morbidity, and mortality was reduced across the board after the vaccination programs began.
When a properly tested and vetted vaccine is available I will get one and I will recommend my family gets vaccinated also.
No vaccine is 100% effective, but if enough people get vaccinated we can achieve heard immunity as an additional level of protection to the actual vaccines.
Overall, vaccines have been so successful it has made it difficult for current healthcare providers to recognize what use to be common childhood illnesses because they have become relatively rare. For example, mumps has dropped from 200K cases in the US annually to about 200. Or maybe 4 people in each state each year. That’s pretty rare.
So vaccines which prevent people from getting sick and further spreading infectious diseases to others and are effective in the vast majority of people who receive them are the best safety net we have.