The Delta variant is the fastest, fittest and most formidable version of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 the world has encountered, and it is upending assumptions about the disease even as nations loosen restrictions and open their economies, according to virologists and epidemiologists.
It's not that lockdowns don't work - they do in theory. Massive lockdowns - farther than we went in March 2020 - including the shutdown of freight travel across land borders would probably work if sustained for a month or two. I can't imagine that's going to happen in the United States as of right now. We can't even get people to comply with a mask mandate, never mind a vaccine. The likelihood of mass compliance with a lockdown is virtually zero, and the social cost of a lockdown (which does matter) is orders of magnitude greater than mandating vaccines.
I do support antigen testing at workplaces, restaurants, basically every form of public life. I would love nothing more than a vaccine mandate, with exceptions for the immunocompromised (I'm not counting children here because I support approving the vaccine for children ASAP). When it comes to sustained lockdowns versus pushing vaccines, I want whatever will work. I think a lockdown on the scale of what China did (or heck, even what France did would probably be enough) in early 2020 is so unlikely to happen I barely consider it. It's not absolving the government, it's recognizing that our government sucks and our chuds suck and understanding that the government is not coming to save us.
Basically my take here is that there are two ways out of this: massive lockdowns lasting probably 2 months or so, or mass vaccination. Other non-pharmaceutical interventions such as mask mandates or social distancing requirements are a drop in the bucket compared to vaccines and lockdowns. I think the former is literally impossible due to non-compliance. I think the latter is unlikely but possible. As such, I think we should mandate vaccines as far and wide as possible while preparing for the likely reality that endemic COVID is coming.
I very much interpreted that thread's "praise" of BoJo as tongue-in-cheek, as in "BoJo wanted to live with it, now he has no other choice."
deleted by creator
China figured this all out two weeks in.
Westerners expect SO LITTLE from government lmfao.
deleted by creator
It's not that lockdowns don't work - they do in theory. Massive lockdowns - farther than we went in March 2020 - including the shutdown of freight travel across land borders would probably work if sustained for a month or two. I can't imagine that's going to happen in the United States as of right now. We can't even get people to comply with a mask mandate, never mind a vaccine. The likelihood of mass compliance with a lockdown is virtually zero, and the social cost of a lockdown (which does matter) is orders of magnitude greater than mandating vaccines.
I do support antigen testing at workplaces, restaurants, basically every form of public life. I would love nothing more than a vaccine mandate, with exceptions for the immunocompromised (I'm not counting children here because I support approving the vaccine for children ASAP). When it comes to sustained lockdowns versus pushing vaccines, I want whatever will work. I think a lockdown on the scale of what China did (or heck, even what France did would probably be enough) in early 2020 is so unlikely to happen I barely consider it. It's not absolving the government, it's recognizing that our government sucks and our chuds suck and understanding that the government is not coming to save us.
Basically my take here is that there are two ways out of this: massive lockdowns lasting probably 2 months or so, or mass vaccination. Other non-pharmaceutical interventions such as mask mandates or social distancing requirements are a drop in the bucket compared to vaccines and lockdowns. I think the former is literally impossible due to non-compliance. I think the latter is unlikely but possible. As such, I think we should mandate vaccines as far and wide as possible while preparing for the likely reality that endemic COVID is coming.
I very much interpreted that thread's "praise" of BoJo as tongue-in-cheek, as in "BoJo wanted to live with it, now he has no other choice."