Quote:
Originally Posted by tweetiepooh
This all depends on how vaccines are designed. If they are too specific they are great against the one they are designed for and may work on other variants if the target is still present.
I would guess that a real infection would prime the body to multiple targets on the virus and there would need to be a more major mutation to deny any immune response.
So as we progress getting reinfected we get to recognise various targets and target patterns.
Herd immunity doesn't mean individuals don't get covid or don't get seriously ill or even die. It means the herd survives.
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indeed, but the % of the herd that survives depends on the efficacy of both the vaccines & antibody response IF we have a variant that can escape both and causes the same degree of severe illness and is as transmissible as the 'first wave' then we're pretty much back to square one.
very initial studies show that the newer variants appear to match three out of four conditions above.
It's therefore not inconceivable that there comes a time when all four conditions are met. At which point we are.......?