Originally Posted by
Foxxster
Precisely. This will involve ongoing vaccinations. However and this is the important point. We do not shut down the economy and state and international borders for the flu. So if / when a mutated strain appears that is resistant to current vaccines then what happens...... oh . Same as happens now ?????? Shut everything until a new, modified vaccine is produced then everyone is vaccinated. How long does that take again.
So again Covid at the moment is not like the flu. It has a high reproduction number and exponential spread. This is why all these measures (social distancing, travel restrictions, lockdowns etc) are being taken. To limit the total spread which limits spread to vulnerable populations.
The reason why governments aim for total elimination is because if the population is not immunised then any outbreak has a high chance of becoming uncontrolled leading to the disasters we can see in other parts of the world at the moment. At one point Italy, Brazil, UK, USA all had one case, but even with lockdowns and restrictions the virus has caused mass amounts of chaos. Australian governments have decided to not let the country get to that stage of collapse.
When we have a vaccine that eliminates the potential for overcrowding of hospitals, wiping out of vulnerable populations, mass spread, etc then the
pandemic is over. The virus remains, and may flare up from time to time, but the
pandemic is over.
I’ll repeat, the vaccine is about stopping a
pandemic, not a virus.