Covid New Variants / Strains

[Bazile]

We are being urged(including a new ad campaign ) to have the covid booster to counter the Omicron variant

It's likely that there will be new variants down the line that will require new vaccines .

So are we destined for a life ,for the foreseeable future of having to have constant jabs ?

[jno]

I suppose it's not impossible. We already do it for flu, though that's only once a year before winter.

[Buenchico]

As Jno say, the flu virus changes every year. So we need different vaccines every year.

I've seen suggestions reported that we might need Covid jabs every 6 months but It's largely a matter of speculation at the moment, as far as I can tell anyway.

[Bazile]

I'm thinking jabs are going to be needed for covid ,more frequently than the flu

[LadyCG]

Covid will probably eventually mutate to be another type of flu and we may even have a combined vaccine at some point.

I'm happy to go and get my vaccines / boosters whenever they're available. I'd rather have a needle in my arm than a tube down my throat.

[Peter Pedant]

wait and see
This WAS predicted as a domesday scenario a few years ago

we have yearly flu jabs so it cd be included

[pixie374]

Maybe yearly.

I have a suspicion that this is the strain we should all get, to increase immunity... and is possibly safer than most others. We obviously can't continue with lockdowns and control, I am hoping that most people will get the less harmful ones now, so they have less need to mutate.

[Old_Geezer]

Only the sheep are so destined. Others have a mind of their own.

[nailit]

//Only the sheep are so destined. Others have a mind of their own//
OG for BA.

[nailit]

Humans are the ONLY life on the planet, so far, to impede their own natural breathing instincts by wearing damp face cloths.

[Gromit]

After the 1918 epidemic we settled into a once year flu jab.
There are literally hundreds of flu variants every year, but we pick the one we think is the worst culprit, and immunise against that one. Sometimes we pick the wrong variant, and there is a spike in flu. I assume this will be similar for covod

[New Judge]

//After the 1918 epidemic we settled into a once year flu jab.//

I think there was a gap of about fifty years between the two.

[pixie374]

Nice to see you, og... x

[Kardashev]

"So are we destined for a life ,for the foreseeable future of having to have constant jabs ? " - yes i think we are.

[Stickybottle]

nailit
Humans are the ONLY life on the planet, so far, to impede their own natural breathing instincts by wearing damp face cloths.

Also the only life on this planet that knows it will die
Sometimes it even knows in which manner
Imagine that as the doctor advances towards you with a tube in hand as you are about to be ventilated ?

[jourdain2]

It'll probably settle down like the current 'flu jab. Our 'flu epidemics are pale descendents of the 1918 virus after all. I expect that we'll end up with a yearly 'flu jab and a yearly covid jab. Eventually it may be possible to give them both at the same time - but I'd be wary of that for a few years yet.

[nailit]

Stickbottle
//Also the only life on this planet that knows it will die//
And you know this how?

[anneasquith]

So much speculation. What we do know ,vaccinations save lives. Take the advice from the experts. Remember the first ministers and PM are only spokespersons

[Stickybottle]

nailit
Stickbottle
//Also the only life on this planet that knows it will die//
And you know this how?

It is a widely held concept and belief
Plenty on google for you to look at

Adversely I would ask where you get all your info and research about the vaccine from ?

[New Judge]

//Imagine that as the doctor advances towards you with a tube in hand as you are about to be ventilated ?//

Very dramatic, sticky. But not very likely. Currently there are about 90,000 new recorded cases daily. Let's err on the conservative side and say that the real number of daily infections is twice that. About 900 a day are entering hospital and about one in ten of them need ventilation (a proportion which seems to be reducing, but let's ignore that). So about one in two thousand patients who contract the virus might face the scenario (assuming they have overcome being placed in an induced coma beforehand). As I said, very dramatic, but very unlikely.

[Stickybottle]

New Judge
//Imagine that as the doctor advances towards you with a tube in hand as you are about to be ventilated ?//

Very dramatic, sticky. But not very likely.

Agreed
But it does happen and is happening
One always reverts to worst case scenarios when giving examples though yes ?
Is case law not similar ?