The COVID-19 pandemic

[danbrotherston]

So Canada is securing 30M+ doses per year going forward after 2021. This will be from Pfizer, and will be slightly different at the virus mutates and will be booster shots.

Based on that, it looks like we're in this for the long haul.

Plus the domestic Novavax production.

Yes, I think we can assume that these viruses will be around for years to come. Hopefully we will be able to manage it through annual booster vaccinations without having to resort to ongoing lockdowns.

There is basically zero chance of ongoing lockdowns. It's entirely infeasible, to the point that it's used as a straw man attack against lockdowns we see now. But it's also unnecessary. Even if variants begin to evade our immune defenses, it will be different from the beginning. At the beginning, everyone had zero immunity, that will never be the case again (unless we eradicate it), because most in our society will have some level of immunity to some forms of the virus, spreading will be much slower, and it will be far less deadly in most who are infected.

It will likely become similar to the flu's effect in our society.

That being said, I do hope we have some social changes as a result. Wearing masks should be more normalized. More emphasis on ventilation, sick days, etc. And regular vaccinations should be more normal. Even without the pandemic, from the flu alone these would have been reasonable changes we should have made, but the pandemic has shone a light on this...even for me, I probably wouldn't have held this position a year ago.

On the other hand, I am at an all time high for cynicism. If we can't even get people to wear masks, right now, how can we ever make positive social changes to behaviour. And this goes way beyond even disease, how can we make progress on climate change...