As a counterpoint I wonder how many thousands of lives we could have/would have saved if we reported on delta with the same type of urgency. We don't have the facts yet, and every story I've seen underscores that point. But to just say "we don't know so let's ignore it entirely until we do" seems to minimize the deadliness of the past mutations we've seen.
It is just as irresponsible to say “we don’t have all the facts… but it could render vaccines useless and reinfect everyone and spread like measles and kill like small pox”.
Ignoring it is irresponsible. Panicking is irresponsible. This isn’t a difficult or new concept! Each year the flu is a new “variant” and every single year it has the _potential_ to be 1918 all over again. But we don’t close borders and force quarantine until we have proof it isn’t 1918 bad. We study it, we prepare vaccines and we take reasonable precautions
I think our top doctor here in bc said it wonderfully. We must anticipate and plan for the worst even as we hope for the best.
It isn't asking for much after what we've been through to go a month with more caution. If we had a 1918 flu, and then another strain worse than that within 2 years, of course we might take some precautions when we find a 3rd strain overtaking the 2nd strain.
