COVID-19 (Coronavirus) discussion

Chris Wilson said:
Funnily enough I don't have any faith in the WHO with regard to their position on both the start and perceived end of this pandemic.
Click to expand...

In terms of social and economical impact there is potential daylight at the end of the tunnel but I certainly don't have confidence we are at the end of the pandemic. Currently it seems like the bulk of those most vulnerable have either died, recovered (though potential long term immunity can be another story) or found ways to minimise their exposure to the virus but another variant could change the situation again.

This virus starts from a higher base than typical for this kind of virus that are already endemic and likely any significant changes from here would take complex, less likely to happen, changes and minor changes would be more likely to either make no difference or be negative for the virus but I certainly wouldn't count it out either.
 
R.P.L said:
I can't claim to know what their reasons are, but an authoritarian state like China could be imposing draconian restrictions on their citizens just because that's how they roll. It's a good way to remind people who's in charge.
Click to expand...

My Nephew worked in Shenzhen as an English teacher, married a Chinese girl on my 60th four years ago but when Covid happened she flew straight back to Shenzhen and they didn't see each other for over 2 years.
He has just secured another full time teaching job in Shenzhen and was really looking forward to it and then this happened.

shenzhencovid.jpg


Update

shenzhencovid2.jpg
 
chroniclard said:
Various friends are still getting it. Thankfully all mostly mild symptoms. Still not knowingly had it, ironman. :cry:
Click to expand...

Still doesn't seem to have touched my household, yet. Quite surprised by that.

One of my brothers picked up quite a bad case of it a few weeks back - but seemed to fully recover pretty quickly, aside from that it has gone very quiet on the virus front around here.
 
Rroff said:
In terms of social and economical impact there is potential daylight at the end of the tunnel but I certainly don't have confidence we are at the end of the pandemic. Currently it seems like the bulk of those most vulnerable have either died, recovered (though potential long term immunity can be another story) or found ways to minimise their exposure to the virus but another variant could change the situation again.

This virus starts from a higher base than typical for this kind of virus that are already endemic and likely any significant changes from here would take complex, less likely to happen, changes and minor changes would be more likely to either make no difference or be negative for the virus but I certainly wouldn't count it out either.
Click to expand...

The current mutation path appears to be single point mutations, targeting 346, 444-446, 486, and 499. 499 Remains unchanged, various Omicron subvariants have played with the others.

The good news is that the immune system is very good at plugging holes that arise from single point mutations, given time. Hopefully the Omicron boosters begin to plug those gaps in immunity we have.

This assumes we don't get another huge divergence, of course.
 
Rroff said:
In terms of social and economical impact there is potential daylight at the end of the tunnel but I certainly don't have confidence we are at the end of the pandemic. Currently it seems like the bulk of those most vulnerable have either died, recovered (though potential long term immunity can be another story) or found ways to minimise their exposure to the virus but another variant could change the situation again.

This virus starts from a higher base than typical for this kind of virus that are already endemic and likely any significant changes from here would take complex, less likely to happen, changes and minor changes would be more likely to either make no difference or be negative for the virus but I certainly wouldn't count it out either.
Click to expand...
Yes, in the Guardian article on the same topic about the WHO being optimistic that we could be near the end of the pandemic the head of the WHO said that a marathon runner runs harder in the final stages and does not give up and it's important not to squander the progress brought about by vaccines through relaxing into complete complacency. That means continuing to invest in vaccination and variant surveillance programmes which this government is cutting. We need to keep up with any potential variants and then we might finally beat this thing.

Like you I am sceptical because besides the vaccines I think we in the West have in general made a pig's ear of the whole thing, but I hope for the best.
 
Hagar said:
We by and large did not collapse the health service.
We by and large did not collapse the economy.
We by and large controlled the effects in the population by vaccination.
Excess death was comparable with other similar populations.
Click to expand...
1 with lockdowns, masks and other controls
2 with massive borrowing
3 in the end yes, future , who knows
4 some comfort I’m sure for those affected

In summary, lockdowns, intervention, lessons learned about slow response are the legacy. Yet some scream “never again”. I don’t have the polite words for that.

Don’t tell me we did anything other than luck out and sort of dodged a massive bullet. We could have done so much better. Do not try and sell this as a “win”, it was a fubar.
 
Vandle said:
Shame they didn’t show people how they rolled in 2019 when they let it out to the entire world.
Click to expand...
They were literally locking people in their own homes from what I saw. If you mean that they could have acted sooner but didn't, then I don't have enough information to make that call and I doubt we ever will. If they were either incompetent or malicious in the swiftness of their response then they will have buried any evidence of that deeper than the Mariana Trench.

Edit: somehow missed that you mentioned 2019. I guess there's probably a good case to say that they sat on it for a bit. I'm not that up to date on the exact timeline to be able to say for sure.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom