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Comment by VintageCool | Hacker News Reader

Israel only has a 61% fully vaccinated rate. It is having to deal with widespread vaccine skepticism just like the US.

Since the Delta variant is so much more infectious than the original covid, you'd have to get to 90% vaccination rates to count as "herd immunity" against this disease.

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Your numbers are misleading and deceptive. 78% of the eligible population and 90% of the most vulnerable have been vaccinated in Israel. Children under 12, who are ineligible for the vaccine, are at insanely low risk from covid and at insanely low risk of spreading it. Pretending they have to be vaccinated to achieve "herd immunity" is a lie and is fear mongering. Data show that unvaccinated children are safer than vaccinated adults.

COVID will become endemic. Everyone knows this. All that's left is for politicians to vilify political opponents for potential votes and try to consolidate more power in the meantime.

It will be endemic longer the more people (i.e. you) imply that there is nothing to be done. Edit: I don't mean to say that is what you meant, I just mean to say that the spread can be contained and the virus can be pushed out of whole regions before new variants arrive. It appears like you are saying that is impossible or not worth trying to attain.

Unfortunately that's simply wrong. There's no scientific basis for claiming that the virus can be pushed out of whole regions. It's impossible. Or at least no one has proposed a plausible plan.

its not only possible but it already happened twice ~ with smallpox and polio.

It is not possible to eradicate SARS-CoV-2. We eradicated smallpox and (almost) polio because we had highly sterilizing vaccines and no animal hosts. That situation doesn't obtain with SARS-CoV-2. Vaccines are highly effective at preventing deaths and I do encourage vaccination, but vaccinated people can still catch and spread the virus. They are probably less contagious on average, but unfortunately that isn't enough to control community spread.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02187-1

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03944-y

there is a too many unknowns for anyone to be able to say its not possible to eradicate covid. whats known for sure is that ~40% vaccination rates would have not been able to eradicate either smallpox or polio...

That is true. But would you also agree that it will be endemic longer if we put false hope in solutions that aren't going to fully work? We need to be honest with ourselves, and be open ideas like therapeutics or UV lights in public spaces or other new ideas to reduce the spread of the virus.

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