MagooFlew

that’s my point. A plan based on a working vaccine is hope, not planning. Plan A was and is: this goes on indefinitely, UNLESS an effective vaccine is found, manufactured, and distributed. COVID is different than those other diseases. Once it became clear how, it was time to get moving.

CaptainCapn

The Chinese and Russian vaccinations along with not being properly tested now are being scrutinised as possibly ineffective.
Apparently they both used a Cold virus called Adrenovirus-5 or Ad-5 which many people have already had this with a common cold thus rendering the vaccine ineffective. Western researchers have chosen alternative adenoviruses or delivery mechanisms. Oxford University and AstraZeneca AZN.L based their COVID-19 vaccine on a chimpanzee adenovirus, avoiding the Ad5 issue. Johnson & Johnson's JNJ.N candidate uses Ad26, a comparatively rare strain. Some scientists also worry an Ad5-based vaccine could increase chances of contracting HIV. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKBN25R19H

tlove482

Maybe plan B is to work on a cure instead of a prevention.

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rickair7777

Often harder with viruses, they're pretty simple so it's hard to find a chemical compound which is bad for them but can be tolerated by the rest of your biochemistry. Antibiotics for example work on bacteria because they generally don't kill the bacteria (or you) but rather impede it's reproduction... since they have a short life-span, most of them just die off naturally within a day or two.

The covid cures (treatments actually) under consideration or development include artificially manufactured antibodies... very similar to the ones your immune system produces, which would be injected. Instead of waiting for your immune system to mobilize, it hits the bug immediately in full strength. Kind of like dropping airborne divisions immediately instead of waiting to mobilize the guard and reserves. Speed is of essence... the longer the virus has to reproduce, the more tissue damage occurs, and the higher the chances of a severe outcome (if one were prone to that in then the first place).

So any treatment along those lines would best be applied at the first hint of illness, likely before covid is diagnosed, and possibly as a prophylactic in the event of known or suspected exposure.

My bet is that there will be some decent treatments coming along fairly soon. This might be the breaklhrough for monoclonal antibodies...

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020...tment-covid-19

There are other anti-viral technologies as well.

TransWorld

Those are encouraging.

tlove482

Maybe the cocktail that Trump got will show some promise. Then if we can start treatment as fast as they did with him, we might make some progress in this fight.

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rickair7777

What he's getting is manufactured antibodies. Those are actually less likely to have any safety problems than a vaccine because they get naturally flushed out of your system, so even if you did have a reaction of some sort it should be temporary.

My only reservation about that or any other treatment is public reluctance... they might prefer just to not get covid rather than to get it and be treated.

BobZ

You mean we have a choice to get covid or not?

Lol

rickair7777

Yes, stay home. That's what I'm worried about, not good for the economy and especially aviation.

BoilerUP

It also is NOT sustainable.

Let's be honest...using a popular phrase, it is the height of 'privilege' to be employed such that you can work from home. That means you're likely a white-collar office worker not in front-line manufacturing, transportation, retail, public utility/service, item delivery, or anything else that has tangibly 'kept the lights on' the last seven months.