Quote:
Originally Posted by spiderplant
I'm not comparing diseases. I'm using it as an example of "overwhelming success". I can't think of many others. Maybe SARS-Cov-1, where we don't have a vaccine but was eradicated entirely by social distancing.
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Success is measured by the attainment of targets. Smallpox was eradicated; that was the aim. In that instance the aim was absolute so the measure of success is arguably binary. If you set out to eradicate something you either succeed or you don’t.
This year the aim has been to deliver an effective vaccine to enough people, with enough speed, to break an epidemic and the pressure it has placed on our health service. I am not aware of anyone inside or outside of government who has made any serious suggestion that the present vaccination programme could, or would, eradicate covid.
Given that we have empirical data showing how fast a covid vaccination programme can reasonably be conducted (as the whole world is doing it), including ample data for how our peer group is performing, and increasing evidence that the link between infection and serious illness has been broken, “overwhelming success” is not an unreasonable conclusion and “reasonably successful” looks precisely like what it is - sour grapes from someone who is hard-wired to detest anything achieved by the British state.