Xan wrote: ↑Fri Jan 01, 2021 8:48 pm
Speaking for myself, give me the vaccine. I want my life back.
Xan, if the vaccine would indeed give you your life back, i.e. lead to relaxing of mask/distancing/lockdowns, then I could understand that. However, it won't - and it's not because politicians are lying. They're not. They're telling us straight-up that lockdowns, mask mandates, distancing etc will continue. You don't get to not wear a mask or throw a dinner party because you got the vaccine.
I don't really know what the end point of the pandemic is. I guess when the positive test rate drops to zero, or near zero, and stays there for a minimum of 6 months to a year. And, the ICUs are empty of patients with respiratory illness. Remember it was less than 1% all summer with very little ICU action but that wasn't enough, so I assume something like the above conditions would have to happen.
And the thing is, that will never happen. What's the false positive rate of the tests, including detecting past infection? There have been a few educated guesses of somewhere in the neighborhood of 1%. Certainly not zero. And, there will always be patients flooding into ICUs with respiratory illnesses in the winter. So I'm guessing that the pandemic will end only when a) the people get tired of it and just start ignoring the laws, making them impossible to enforce, or b) politicians realize there is no endpoint, they get tired of the endless cycling, and they'll simply declare victory and walk off the field based on whatever numbers they decide to talk about. God only knows what role the vaccine will play in all that, but I'm guessing it won't be a big factor.