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Don’t write off A380, but global vaccine crucial
Emirates Airline president Tim Clark expects the Airbus A380 will continue to be a “hugely potent” tool once the industry begins recovering from the post-coronavirus crisis. But he warns that it will hinge on the roll-out of a global inoculation programme against the disease. (www.flightglobal.com) More...
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Risk is just a part of life. Influenza causes huge numbers of illness and death every year. We get flu vaccine based on what types are expected for the year but it has been wrong in the past. Also only half of people in US get the flu vaccine. When you get on a plane bus train or elevator for that matter you are at risk for getting transmission. We did it routinely before Covid 19 and will do so after we get better control and understanding of this virus
Great summary. One thing worth noting is that unless we get COVID-19 under control, ALL forms of mass transportation are in jeopardy, whether it is a plane, a subway, or a bus.
On a subway and bus, people are even more closely crammed in, and the turnover of passengers getting on and off is obviously greater than on an airplane, meaning that the number of people in your immediate vicinity that you are exposed to is greater, too.
On a subway and bus, people are even more closely crammed in, and the turnover of passengers getting on and off is obviously greater than on an airplane, meaning that the number of people in your immediate vicinity that you are exposed to is greater, too.
And there's no vaccine for the common cold or flu either
I don't think there's ever been quite the same level of incentive...
I always thought that the cold virus vaccine has never materialized because there are too many different virus’ and therefore a vaccine would be ineffective
With respect, tilting at windmills is not good public policy. As stated, SARS has no immunological preventative. Ebola, Hanta, and others remain potent and to some extent quite lethal pathogens. Never before this policy of quarantining the healthy has such a strategy been enacted. It may serve to isolate people from the pathogen, and vice versa, but it is merely prolonging the wait for the inevitable. Flus have been ravaging our societies for as long as man has been present, and other organisms before that. Shutting down commerce and markets is a form of governmentally commanded suicide for our life style. The mystery surrounding the genesis of the novel flu provides fodder for the “terrror merchants” which make millions of people compliant with terrible would be “solutions”. Transportation is an integral part of our economy., and no special solution is available to make it immune to risk.
Two mechanisms will make us all less susceptible. Herd immunity we hear about regularly is when a high proportion of the population has resistance. Some diseases like pertussis and measles require a high level of over 90% of the population to have this immunity while others a lower percentage is all that is needed. We have no idea on what level is necessary for COVID-19 to drop from this mechanism.
The second is attenuation. As viruses pass through mammals the infectivity of the virus decreases. Live polio vaccine is an example of using this mechanism where the virus taken by mouth has been weakened to not cause disease in patients with intdact immune systems.
Finally treatment. The only sure treatment is using convalescent antibodies from a recovered patient's plasma. Obviously not first line.