As empirical evidence of the vaccines’ success becomes incontrovertible, it got me wondering: what would society look like now if all of the vaccines under trial had been shown to be unsuccessful?
Would politicians be standing on podiums saying we have no choice but to get back to normal, accept the death, and significantly ramping up healthcare; or would we be continuing with restrictions indefinitely and following 2020 restrictions with ever increasing debt until natural herd immunity had been reached? Perhaps we’d be holding out hope on further vaccines starting development in the distant future?
One thing I’m certain of is that the arguments between elimination/Covid zero, and easing restrictions and herd immunity, would become an order of magnitude more pronounced. I expect mainstream political parties would take opposing positions.
I don’t recall seeing this parallel universe discussed very much as we have taken not only the existence of vaccines, but also their incredible efficacy, for granted. I think it’s easy to forget how close to this other scenario we could have been (even if our fate was sealed back in April or so!)
Would politicians be standing on podiums saying we have no choice but to get back to normal, accept the death, and significantly ramping up healthcare; or would we be continuing with restrictions indefinitely and following 2020 restrictions with ever increasing debt until natural herd immunity had been reached? Perhaps we’d be holding out hope on further vaccines starting development in the distant future?
One thing I’m certain of is that the arguments between elimination/Covid zero, and easing restrictions and herd immunity, would become an order of magnitude more pronounced. I expect mainstream political parties would take opposing positions.
I don’t recall seeing this parallel universe discussed very much as we have taken not only the existence of vaccines, but also their incredible efficacy, for granted. I think it’s easy to forget how close to this other scenario we could have been (even if our fate was sealed back in April or so!)