by the end of October, it will be many months before everyone (or as close to everyone as is realistic) can be vaccinated.
I have memories of the mass vaccination clinics for polio. I recall being in a field with what might have been several hundred children and their parents. And keep in mind, we were only vaccinating kids then. Plus the population of this country was about half what it is today.
Apparently the vaccines in the pipeline are going to require 2 shots, rather like the new shingles vaccine. Which means nearly 700 million doses for this country alone. I'll overlook the anti-vaxxers. The won't reduce the doses needed all that much. But think about what it will take to produce nearly a billion doses. And I understand that the ones that are most promising will need to be kept at very cold temperatures. Which will add a logistical component. And, trying to vaccinate people in third world countries with a vaccine that needs to be kept very cold will add an interesting layer of complication.
Make no mistake. This entire Covid-19 thing will last years longer than people expect. Years.
For several months now I've been saying this: Imagine it's 1939, and you and I are planning to go to Europe next year. We've been saving our money and we know we can finally go next year. It will be great! So far our plans include London, Paris, Rome, Venice, the French Riviera. We can hardly wait. But then September rolls around and WWII breaks out. Oh, crap. It's obvious we aren't going to Europe next year. If we're lucky, the war won't last long and we can take our trip in 1941. Sigh. Instead, the war goes on and on, doesn't end in Europe until May, 1945. The soonest we might take that long postponed trip is 1946. More likely a year or more later. And when we finally get there, it will be a completely different Europe from the one we'd have seen in 1939.
It's going to be like that with this Corona Virus. It's going to last a whole lot longer than people currently think, and will bring about vast and profound changes everywhere. A lot of things will be very different when it's finally over, much like the difference between the Europe of 1939 and the Europe of 1946.
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