Originally Posted by
corporate-wage-slave
<snip>. It should be pointed out that the Kent variant may have the evolutionary upper hand here over other variants, as things stand, and that is dealt with by existing vaccines.
As ever, thanks for all the updates C-W-S. Great stuff as well as extra insights.
The quoted point caught my eye and its rarely touched on; and it leads to an interesting dilemma (possibly!).
If the Kent variant is: covered by the current vaccines with no or only minor drop in efficacy (and really really cuts down on hospitalisations); has almost the same infection to death rates as the former dominant; and seems controllable via public health measures ... then is there a case for other countries considering not trying too hard to avoid the Kent variant?
In other words, given the evolutionary advantage (and should the three 'ifs' I note turn out to be met), then is it better the devil you know than risking more deadly or more evasive variants?
I'm not at all advocating this as the next step, rather throwing it out there that variants will continue to develop and many will be out there already. Therefore, surely, the effort should not necessarily wholly be to avoid new variants (which seems the current emphasis) but include the possibility that certain variants might be embraced and an opportunity.