New York Times article: Reaching herd immunity in the USA against Covid-19 unlikely to happen

[thewayne]

I was feeling this in my bones with the rate of vaccination declining and the growing opposition against vaccination, not to mention the rising number of variations.

Personally, I have no problem with getting an annual Covid vaccination, I can accept that. I really hate the possibility of always having a mask around my neck and pulling it up every time I go on the floor and into the stacks. Plus, one of my student workers won't get vaccinated, she "has convictions". I wonder if she has convictions against polio and tetanus, or if she's in favor of them. At least she'll complete her education at some point and leave.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/03/health/covid-herd-immunity-vaccine.html

https://science.slashdot.org/story/21/05/03/167239/reaching-herd-immunity-is-unlikely-in-the-us-experts-now-believe

Comments

[bibliofile]

I skip the mainstream media and go directly to scientists and doctors and science mags. They all say that vaccines work and they're safe. I trust science.

[thewayne]

While I think you have a point, Gryphon, I'm on Bibliophile's page.  The science of vaccines is well-established, National Institutes of Health have been working on coronavirus vaccine research for something on the order of 13 years or more.  Obviously not for this specific virus, but they had the basic package in development and it didn't take a lot of tweaking to tune it for this specific one.  Meanwhile, BioNTech in Germany have been working on mRNA tech to fight cancer - with great success - for ages, it's their life's work.  They developed a vaccine very quickly because they, too, had great fundamental tools already at hand.  But they didn't have the production capacity, so they partnered with Pfizer.  If Trump had left CDC in competent hands rather than in the control of sycophants, while we would still have this problem, it wouldn't be nearly this bad and we'd be a lot closer to herd immunity.  For that matter, had Trump been a man and worn a mask and promoted vaccination.... but that's water under the bridge and there's no going back to that point and playing the What If game.

Trump systematically set out to destroy trust in science,

[rain_gryphon]

Do you remember when we were young, the esteem in which science and scientists were held? Science had given us the moon, the bottom of the ocean, and the secrets of the atom. It stood like a second sun, ready to light our way into the future. If a scientist told you something, it was true. You don't unravel a faith like that in four years.

[rain_gryphon]

You and I, however, are of a generation when the philosophy and methodology of science were still taught to all students, and of a time when scientists stayed above politics. Those days are long over. "Follow the science", to the current generation, seems to mean, "Quit arguing, and do as you're told". That's working about as well as it wlways has.

[bibliofile]

> "Follow the science", to the current generation, seems to mean, "Quit arguing, and do as you're told". That's working about as well as it wlways has.

Hah! That line never worked for me. Fortunately my parents would in fact explain stuff to me pretty regularly.

As an adult, it also helps that I have friends and relations who are in science and healthcare professions. With the internet, it's even possible to look up research online. (Yeah, I looked at those studies that supposedly link vaccines to autism.) Media literacy and internet literacy are the best tools for that, though -- even more important than scientific anything, you could argue.