I live in a city with 95% adult vaccination (at least one dose) and the government has just announced that they are exploring how to open schools at an indeterminate date in the future.
If we can’t just go back to normal now, then why don’t we just give up?
Once all the kids are vaccinated (and BTW even the WHO is taking a cautious approach on this given that it's unclear whether young children are at more risk from Covid or the shots), what's the plan for preventing variants from developing in the developed world? In animal reservoirs? In the large numbers of vaccinated people who still wind up hosting (usually minor and asymptomatic) infections?
If vaccine escape happens because the UK had its schools open then I find it very difficult to believe "we vaccinate everyone at once and the virus just goes away" was ever a realistic prospect in the first place.
From what I understand, there is a good chance that the pool for variants is limited, and that vaccinations (or a past infection) give decent immunity for new variants. Even for a variant with an immune escape, ie. you are not immune and might even spread it, your past exposures will make a serious case with hospitalisation unlikely. Immune escape is not a boolean attribute.
We've done well with vaccinations, though nowhere near close to 95% and we're still in the longest lock down world wide with no real signs of things going back to normal.
But there are signs that things are getting better. Its a long time betweeen now and September, let's give it time to see how things go. As long as the trend is moving in the right direction and governments give back their emergency powers( we have an Ontario government that just granted themselves a longer stay on their power even though we're doing really well in terms of vaccinations nd case counts) then maybe be patient and let things play out.
If we can’t just go back to normal now, then why don’t we just give up?