• Est-ce que, vu que ça fait un an que ça dure, on a une théorie un peu sérieuse sur l’effet de l’arrivée de l’été sur le virus ?

    Parce que de ce que je vois, la situation est mauvaise en ce moment au Brésil, où c’est l’été.

    Je vous dis ce que je crains ? Si on continue avec ces pseudo-confinements qui se contentent de bloquer la progression, sans réellement d’effet à la baisse, on va se maintenir à des niveaux très élevés de circulation du virus, et je ne vois pas dans ce cas comment on pourrait rouvrir quoi que ce soit de restauration, de bistrots et de culturel pour l’été.

    À moins que le pari est que d’ici là, on aura vacciné au moins la population la plus fragile, et que donc on pourra laisser s’ébattre le virus dans la population, avec un taux de mortalité bien plus faible et donc sans saturer les réas. Ce qui me semble un choix excessivement risqué.

    • L’immunité de troupeau naturelle à partir d’une vague initiale n’existe pas (#Manaus). Les seuls « vaccins » (in)disponibles ont des effets dont on ne sait pas à quel point ils sont limités. Le pari : compter sur des mutations nombreuses pour obtenir une immunité de troupeau naturelle, à moyen terme....

      Immunological characteristics govern the transition of COVID-19 to endemicity - View ORCID ProfileJennie S. Lavine1,*, View ORCID ProfileOttar N. Bjornstad2, View ORCID ProfileRustom Antia1
      https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2021/01/11/science.abe6522

      We are currently faced with the question of how the CoV-2 severity may change in the years ahead. Our analysis of immunological and epidemiological data on endemic human coronaviruses (HCoVs) shows that infection-blocking immunity wanes rapidly, but disease-reducing immunity is long-lived. Our model, incorporating these components of immunity, recapitulates both the current severity of CoV-2 and the benign nature of HCoVs, suggesting that once the endemic phase is reached and primary exposure is in childhood, CoV-2 may be no more virulent than the common cold. We predict a different outcome for an emergent coronavirus that causes severe disease in children. These results reinforce the importance of behavioral containment during pandemic vaccine rollout, while prompting us to evaluate scenarios for continuing vaccination in the endemic phase.

      #gouvernerlapandémie

    • Ah, Christian Drosten aborde très exactement ces deux points (effet de l’été, laisser filer l’épidémie une fois les personnes fragiles vaccinées) dans son interview de la semaine :
      https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/interview-with-virologist-christian-drosten-i-am-quite-apprehensive-about-wh

      Drosten: Once the elderly and maybe part of the risk groups have been vaccinated, there will be immense economic, social, political and perhaps also legal pressure to end the corona measures. And then, huge numbers of people will become infected within just a short amount of time, more than we can even imagine at the moment. We won’t have 20,000 or 30,000 new cases a day, but up to 100,000 in a worst-case scenario. It will, of course, be primarily younger people who are less likely than older people to have severe symptoms, but when a huge number of younger people get infected, then the intensive care units will fill up anyway and a lot of people will die. Just that it will be younger people. We can cushion this terrible scenario somewhat by pushing the numbers way down now.

      DER SPIEGEL: Can we be confident that case numbers will begin to drop in spring as temperatures rise?

      Drosten: I don’t think so. The fact that we had such a relaxed summer in 2020 likely had to do with the fact that our case numbers remained below a critical threshold in the spring. But that’s not the case any longer. I am afraid that it will be more like in Spain, where case numbers climbed rapidly again after the lockdown was lifted, even though it was quite hot. In South Africa, too, where it is currently summer, case numbers are at a high level.