Lockdown? Your health vs. the economy.

Soon we will need to start having covid vaccine for children.   But, it seems that the current covid vaccines excluded children from their studies.  I think this was mostly due to the fear of lawsuits.  I saw yesterday a TV commercial from one of those TV commercial law firms advising that if you or a family member got covid and were very sick or died that you may have a lawsuit for medical malpractice.  Thus, another level of complexity to the horrible pandemic.   

Sorry if I get too depressive sometimes.   I do think we will beat this pandemic.  But so much loss.   

I get depressive, too. Mentioning reports of new potential problems that loom before us is spreading gloom on purpose but such warnings do have that effect. It was only a matter of time before random RNA mutations led to the occasional change that made the virus more dangerous. Especially if they render the vaccines less effective. It isn't the manufacturer or the researcher's fault in those cases. Until we can find a stable region of the viral protein to attack with an antibody, we'll be struggling with the behavioral means of slowing its spread. But that's a circular argument - because mutations in RNA can happen all over the place and affect every gene product's expression.

We do know things that work, but they're hard to do.

I've grown a little more pessimistic than I was about  week ago but it's always difficult to distinguish between hard facts and clickbait hysteria provocation.  Clearly the alarm bells about variants has ramped up but the data on the J&J vaccine said it was 100% effective at preventing deaths and hospitalizations even among those who had the South African variant.  For what it's worth, maybe nothing, cases have been on the decline in South Africa itself for several days and they haven't even started vaccinating yet.

Whatever the case - I hope we have our best and brightest figuring out to ramp up production and distribution.  How is Biden using the defense production act?  Here's something I found with a quick search:

https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/covid-19-the-biden-administration-s-8150345/

Moderna says it will have 100 million doses by end of first quarter.  Pfizer now says it will hit 120 million doses by end of first quarter.  That's just 2 months away.  J&J will hit the ground running with 2 million doses for U.S. (and remember that's as good as 4 million doses of the other vaccines) and claim they will hit 100 million by end of June.  If true . . .  

Thank goodness for what I think of as the real scientists who have learned about DNA, RNA, and how to make vaccines.   My science skills were limited.    

Time to go off on a tangent on a snowy day.    I took lots of science courses in college and had to compete for grades since most courses were graded on a curve.   So, I had to compete against students who had to get all A's to get into medical school.   I had no ambition to be a doctor, so it was not a serious issue for me and I knew several students who did go to medical school.    I kind of divided them into two categories.  1.  Those who studied like crazy till 2 am so they would get good grades; and 2. Those who were like geniuses who easily learned and passed the courses that the rest of us struggled with.  

So, to state the obvious, it is a team effort to rid our world of this virus.   We need the genius scientists who can invent and make the vaccines, those who manufacture the vaccine, those who deliver the vaccine, those who administer the vaccine, those who organize the clinics, those who figure out a way to pay for the clinics and vaccine, those who volunteer at the clinics, those who communicate about the need for vaccination and masks, and the rest of us to be smart enough to get vaccinated and wear our masks.  And all the others whose jobs are not mentioned.