The ram wrote:Lockdown is easing in Britain. You can sit outside a pub and have a drink now. Another 4 weeks and you can go into the pub, there will obviously be restrictions and social distancing but all that goes out the window once the great British public have a skinful, thank God.
I don't think we've heard the last of this by a long way in Europe. I see the media already scaremongering about all these different strains and how the vaccine doesn't work so well on them. Setting the scene for next winter's lockdown. It could be a case of having the vaccine next winter and everything returns to normal, I don't think so, though.
The two keys to returning to normal:
1) easing of the number of cases and the number of COVID deaths, hospitalizations, percent positivity, and other such numbers.
This is happening in most of the USA. India is having a terrible time of it, and we do not know how it will affect Africa and other parts of the world not yet getting large numbers of the vaccine doses, YET. The USA will likely give away LARGE amounts of the vaccine to such poor nations.
2) Achieving "Herd Immunity". That will happen when about 75% get the vaccine. Since there is some 20% (best estimates in the USA) who refuse to get the vaccine, getting there will be difficult. Also, another 20% are not sure ("on the fence") so we need to get 75% of that 20% to get to Herd Immunity.
The USA has already seen a drop in the # getting the vaccine. Recently, that # was over 4 million per week and now we are below 1 million per week. We are beginning to level off, even though the total number vaccinated is not yet reach 1/2 the US population.
also:
3) It is likely that we will need yearly vaccines, like the flu shot now as well as the one for pneumonia, two other diseases that harm the lungs and the respiratory system.
4) We will learn more about this virus and better ways to deal with it and its symptoms, too.
