jo' bo wrote: ↑17 May 2021, 5:26pm
What we have agreed is that those with compromised immune systems are not save from me or from those who are vaccinated, the only safe course of action for them is to stay in and wear a mask, quite possibly for ever
At some point the risk is low enough that it's worth us going out anyway.
The extreme being "am I more likely to get hit by a bus than catch covid". If the chances were that low then staying in because of covid would be ridiculous (assuming you ever went out to start with).
The vaccine is highly effective at reducing transmission, and also at reducing serious illness - which has a serious impact on availability of healthcare at all levels. Evidence from the transplant community is also very positive in terms of people who are medically immuno-suppressed.
Widespread vaccination is an essential tool in reducing the prevalence of the disease to an acceptable level (given that we still haven't actually implemented any realistic sort of quarantine yet). If I was in Australia then the need for a vaccine would be significantly less pressing, because they did implement a quarantine - and they did it when they were told to by the scientists.
You're right in one aspect - an individual vaccination makes as much difference as a single person taking one pebble from the beach (almost none), but when a large number of people start taking just one pebble from the beach then there are soon no pebbles on the beach at all - and every large number of people starts with just one.
There really is no concept of doing things that are even marginally inconvenient for the good of others any more. Little wonder the roads are such a horrible place to be.