macliam wrote: ↑Sun Jan 17 2021 8:14pm
I'm no denier, I just don' t believe everything I'm told - particularly when l know better.
I'm sure all the vaccines will play their part..... But none of them will be a silver bullet.
True, no silver bullet.
But they will enable us to eventually remove masks and social distancing and start travelling again.
Once enough people in the community are protected. Until then we have to protect them by sticking with the masks etc. And the more people who refuse the vaccine, the longer that will take.
We should get to a state where it's like flu. Some years, a lot of people will be affected. Other years will be lighter. But the NHS won't be unduly pressured and we'll live with the risk like we do with flu. Maybe we'll need to have top up jabs every year, maybe we'll need them to combat different strains (again, like flu). The people at risk will be the usual elderly and medically vulnerable and the people who couldn't be vaccinated. Those who believed it was all a scam and there is no virus and they won't have the vaccine won't be at risk because no matter how ill they get, they are not ill because the virus doesn't exist.
In time, I expect we will develop better vaccines that are longer lasting, or affect more strains, or be more effective at preventing onward infection and breaking the chain of infection. We've been working on a general coronavirus vaccine for years. It's not been a high priority until recently. But at least the current vaccines mean it's only the lab scientists who will have to wear masks during that time.