Two classes of drugs: Therapeutics vs Vaccines.
Post# of 148165
Primary issue currently with any COVID-19 vaccine is that "A study by UCLA researchers shows that in people with mild cases of COVID-19, antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes the disease — drop sharply over the first three months after infection, decreasing by roughly half every 36 days. If sustained at that rate, the antibodies would disappear within about a year."
Even if we could get half the population to vaccinate, there are still the others who fall into the various categories, MM, SC, Long Haulers, and who knows what else we will come to define as this virus evolves/mutates new strains. This is the biggest issue with an emerging virus as Bruce defines.
It's not just the virus that is killing, we know that. It's the blood clots, strokes, scar tissue, cardiac damage, the list is still growing as we track and take notes... we keep finding things in the post-mortem autopsies.
We need therapeutics to temper the symptoms to keep up with mutation and the havoc it will wreak. We're already preparing for whats coming in the fall... We need MORE people to be preparing with us.
This isn't to say it's the only thing that will work forever. It's to say it's the best thing we have right now, (technically, since beginning of COVID-19) to use until something else comes to light, to be used in combination, etc, only time will tell.