Quote:
Originally Posted by hoot72
Now, the situation in Malaysia varies drastically to what is going on in Singapore
Malaysia has followed the Wuhan model for the lockdown BUT, has taken a slightly less draconian attitude towards implementing the lock down.
Singapore on the other hand has taken a different approach; they are allowing schools to remain open, malls to continue to operate, restaurants to operate and businesses to carry on as normal
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Singapore just announced a two week lockdown, with extensions likely. Contact tracing and isolation have failed.
The only way this ends, the only way, is when the susceptible population goes away: illness followed by immunity or death, or an effective vaccine. If you flatten the curve through isolation the disease pops up again as soon as you loosen up. But there's no other option except to let it rip through the population. And that’s politically impossible.
We'll see another serious wave this fall for that exact reason.
A vaccine is still at least a year away. Recent research papers confirm weak antibody response with late seroconversion during active disease, which leads to slow clearing of the virus and viral shedding for a week after symptoms go away. This is bad news for vaccine development. Not insurmountable, but...challenging. It’s not a slam-dunk that vaccines currently under development will work.
Our one shining hope is an antibody treatment that targets those receptor spikes on the virus. Lots of work going on in that arena. Those products should go into Phase I trials soon, and unless they kill a lot of people, into compassionate release immediately thereafter. It could be a game-changer.
Good luck to you and your loved ones.