Is it just me or are they neglecting the treatment option here? Expanding manufacturing of monoclonal antibodies such that they're available everywhere for rapid treatment of actual cases rather than just vaccinating everyone might make more sense (particularly when vaccine breakthrough with new covid varients seems so common now). There's also several new antiviral meds that studies claim are quite effective.

This might mean accepting we have a new endemic disease that's going to be around for the foreseeable future, but that might be inevitable given the global distribution and all the new variants.

Incidentally, this is why I'm strongly opposed to gain-of-function research involving taking wild-type animal viruses and modifying them to include sequences that bind human cell receptors. It's likely possible to transform a wide variety of animal viruses into human pathogens with these approaches, and it doesn't add much value to the medical knowledge base. Yes we have learned how to create new diseases - oops - so let's stop doing it already.