Quote:
Originally Posted by detbuch
Infection is the natural process to achieve herd immunity. Vaccine is an artificial infection that is presumably safer than natural. Vaccine "infects" with a more harmless strain. Protecting the vulnerable while allowing the mass population -- of which 99% are not statistically at risk of dying from covid--is the way to achieve natural herd immunity. Having the vaccine here, in a phenomenally quick time, allows us to switch the method toward infection and herd immunity. Sweden went this route But it failed to protect the vulnerable--had they done that, it would have severely cut down on the number of deaths.
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Sweden has admitted that they took the wrong approach largely because with the care needed by the vulnerable, they are not able to be isolated.
In this country achieving herd immunity without a vaccine is projected to kill between 1 and 2 Million Americans and could leave millions more with unknown lingering symptoms that would then qualify as uninsurable pre-existing conditions.
The long term effects of covid infection are not yet known.
Since December 2019, COVID-19 has killed more people in the U.S. than influenza has in the last five years.
Many more people are susceptible to COVID-19 because there is little preexisting immunity to the virus that causes it—SARS-CoV-2. Through vaccinations and previous infections, a portion of the population has some immunity to influenza, which helps limit the number of cases we see each year.
COVID-19 has a higher severe disease and mortality rate than influenza in all age groups, except perhaps children under the age of 12.
COVID-19 survivors report many more long-term effects of the infection than influenza survivors. Lingering symptoms like weakness, shortness of breath, trouble focusing and, in some cases, kidney and heart problems are much more common after COVID-19 than after influenza.
“Mild” COVID-19 illness has been described as “flu-like.” It’s important to remember that the flu is a pretty debilitating disease so “mild” COVID-19 is still a pretty significant disease.
With all infectious diseases, we focus on two main objectives:
1. Treat the infected people
2. Limit the spread of the infection in the population.
A large number of COVID-19 patients present with no or very mild symptoms, but those individuals can still transmit the virus to others, some of whom could have a much more serious course of illness. Every person who gets infected keeps the “chains of transmission” going, which can bring COVID-19 to those who are more vulnerable.