MGB8 wrote:Vaccines aren't a forcefield that can keep viruses from entering the body and infecting some cells. What vaccines do, and have always done, is effectively "train" the body on how to defeat the specific invader, so that if/when the virus gets into the body and infects some cells, the body quickly ramps up the correct defenses and prevents too much spread. By preventing too much spread, you hopefully prevent negative symptoms - but depending on the efficacy of the vaccine (e.g., how quickly immune cells send the appropriate antibodies, and how well targeted / effective those antibodies are), you can either entirely prevent significant infection (and quickly deactivate any remaining virus) or have some lesser benefit (you get sick, but not as sick, and get healthier sooner).
Maybe the most hopeful take, though, is that Omicron itself will end up being an analog to a vaccine. A virus that is massively infectious - much more so than Delta - but also significantly milder. A new "common cold" --- where, once you fight off that common cold, your body will actually be decently primed to fight off other coronaviruses (including both older and future variants). So called "cross-immunity - where there are a number of scientists who believe that one of the big reason so many people have asymptomatic COVID infections is prior infections from "common-cold" coronaviruses.
I agree with much of what you wrote and disagree with a few things.
Generally speaking, if you think of every other vaccine that you get in your life that is referred to as a vaccine, it is for something that more or less no longer exists in this country because of the vaccine.
Polio, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Chicken Pox, etc...
If you choose to get the Hep A-C vaccines they also prevent you from getting the disease.
The hope was the COVID vaccine would work like that, but it doesn't, because COVID mutates, and it's more like the flu, so a single vaccine may help your body's immune response, but it doesn't stop you from getting/spreading. When the vaccine was first made, that wasn't known that it would happen and was actually a debate as to whether this would mutate. There were scientists lining up on both sides saying it would or would not.
This is going to be more like the flu shot, and note that no one calls it the flu vaccine. Why? Because people view vaccines as something that prevents you from getting something and has permanent effects. There's a reason why many people don't view this vaccine as a real vaccine or view it as a scam. Every other vaccine they get that is referred to as a vaccine operates differently. While there is some ignorance baked into that viewpoint, it is also based on how people commonly view the definition of words even if not explicitly correct.
I remember when they said two weeks working from home to stop the spread, I told my wife that was ridiculous, there was no way staying home for two weeks would do anything. People have largely been working from home ever since. It was obvious that they put out this message that wasn't realistic, and it isn't to say there wasn't value in moving to more remote work for a period of time, there clearly was, but the way they phrased it wasn't really reasonable.
As soon as Delta came out, and we saw that major mutations hit, we knew for certain that we are never going to get rid of COVID-19 all together, it will now be ever present in our lives and a new question opened up which is your final point. Can we get the impact of it low enough that while it is ever present, it is also irrelevant (or no more relevant than the common cold?). I guess we'll find out over the next few years, every other similar virus seemed to end up that way after around a five year period, so it seems likely, but not 100% certain.
Finally in 2018! 16 year wait!
