There’s “not going away” and then there’s “are enough vaccinated? Are the vulnerable vaccinated? Do we have hospital bed and nurse +doctor capacity?”
Here in Singapore, we’re ensuring that those above 60 get vaccinated where feasible before we fully open up. Meanwhile, with an increasing percentage of the population getting vaccinated, there are gradual lifting of controls. The Ministerial Task Force have said a few months ago that Singapore will have to prepare for the possibility that COVID 19 will be endemic.
I suggest that rather than take potshots at Faucci, it’d be wise to understand whether your hospital systems are ready for an upsurge in those who need to be hospitalised.
I think you’re probably right that lockdown measures should track, inter alia, projected hospital utilization. However, the message we’re still receiving is that the lockdown remains necessary because if we can just maintain it a bit longer, COVID will go away. It seems a bit disingenuous, sorta like “free beer…tomorrow.”
If you look at past graphs, the US could have been fully vaccinated by mid-June or perhaps July. The current problems faced by the hospital system in some areas of the US were probably avoidable, so what is true for Singapore’s policies is not the same in the US.
But it is likely quite hard to predict hospital utilization, since it changes many weeks after we needed to change behaviors to maybe avoid it.
There’s “not going away” and then there’s “are enough vaccinated? Are the vulnerable vaccinated? Do we have hospital bed and nurse +doctor capacity?”
Here in Singapore, we’re ensuring that those above 60 get vaccinated where feasible before we fully open up. Meanwhile, with an increasing percentage of the population getting vaccinated, there are gradual lifting of controls. The Ministerial Task Force have said a few months ago that Singapore will have to prepare for the possibility that COVID 19 will be endemic.
I suggest that rather than take potshots at Faucci, it’d be wise to understand whether your hospital systems are ready for an upsurge in those who need to be hospitalised.