OK, cheers for the explanations. I’m staggered that it was so widely discussed as a possibility then, by seemingly highly qualified virologists. Wasn’t there a paper from an institute based in Scotland fairly early on talking about perhaps obtaining “herd immunity” even with only 10% or so of the population being immune?
I am not sure that humanity would notice an organism that unsuccessful.
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That’s not true though is it? There isn’t a virus in the Coronavirus family that provides long term immunity. This was known, and it’s the reason nearly all countries apart from a couple decided to stop it rather than let it run wild.
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When you say this short period of immunity (6-8 months) was known, is that just an assumption based on existing known immune responses to other coronaviruses?
Is it the case that following infection nobody (or at least no significant % of the population) retain long term (by which I mean at least a year) immunity to specific individual coronavirus strains?
Are we therefore going to need constant immunisation at least once a year against Covid-19 and any other particularly deadly strains of coronavirus for the foreseeable future?
This reminds me a bit of the Americans I read on the internet doing incredibly irresponsible stuff, gathering in massive groups, but then say that “it’s not that bad, we wear masks”. As if masks helps a lot in such large groups of people 
That’s also incidentally the reason why we in Norway, apart from the biggest cities, mostly don’t wear masks, and are not recommended to do so. You really don’t want that psychology of “it’s okay, we wear masks” to grab hold of your populace. The government, ours anyway, is terrifying that this is exactly what would happen if they advised everyone to wear masks.
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This whole covid story becomes a farce now, I can’t take anything what these politicians say or decide seriously anymore. 
This new so-called ‘dangerous’ mutant is just obvious piss-taking, and so, so utterly transparent panic-mongering.
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The specific time period of the Covid-19 immunity period was not known in March - arguably still something we are only guessing at. There is an observation problem there, particularly with asymptomatic cases. Maybe some percentage of the population does develop long-term immunity, but we have not done a study that can establish that.
But the basic fact that we had never developed a vaccine against a coronavirus was there, as was the fact that all of the coronavirus that affect that humans that we have studied don’t leave a permanent immune response.
So, in terms of the use of the vaccine, for a cycle of probably a few years, we will need to be vaccinated at least once a year, until the disease is eradicated in the human population. Not much we can do about the zoonotic reservoir, but it has probably been around for a long time anyway. It does make issues of global equity stand out - the sooner we help poor countries vaccinate their whole population, the sooner we can put the virus firmly in the past.
I am not sure that any of the vaccines in their current configuration will work against other coronavirus, though we now have a much better platform to do that than we did.
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Completely agree with that. According to most serious scientists I’ve read, masks do allegedly only 10-15% of the work. The other 85-90% is serious and regular hand-washing, holding distance and avoiding to shout or laugh into people’s faces.
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No credible person has ever said that the normal masks offer 100% protection or anything close to that and are a substition for the other rules of social distancing. Still better than no masks in many situations though.
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Seems a lot of serious scientists in countries with no mask mandates that have made a mess of this have spent effort suggesting mask mandates are not important, and not bothering to explain the strong correlation between widespread mask usage and lower rates of infection.
All of the measures have to work together.
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It sure is, although not if it leads to irresponsible behaviour where you gather closer to people than you would otherwise do without a mask. Then wearing a mask is much worse.
And clearly, in the US but also elsewhere, they are struggling with this psychology some places, where some people seem to think that you can be in large gatherings as long as you have a mask. It is either a lack of information, intelligence or people not giving a damn. I dont get it.
Anyway, I am off to Oslo in 2 days and then it will be mask time, but for now, wearing a mask where I live now, is pretty pointless. Social distancing and keeping meters apart from everyone but your household, as well as hygiene of course, is what is primarily important and no one with masks should be lured into thinking otherwise.
To be frank, I think out government gave been very wise so far concerning mask advice and etc.
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Good for you. I live in a densely populated area of a city and am glad there are at least some rules for masks.
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Thats very different obviously. Still, I do worry about those crowds of people.
Got to be honest, will be in the capital for some days but I am not looking forward to crowds, masks or not masks. But last time I was in Oslo most people held meters distance and hope that will be the case now too.
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Hmm. Guess we will learn more soon.
I don’t think people gathering in large groups wearing masks is at the top of the list of problems causing the raging rate of infection in the US.
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Maybe the Russians have hacked into the masks reducing their effectiveness
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Or the masks are made in China. 
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I don’t think it is the main problem either, but I do sure think is a problem when people gather in large crowds with masks, and act differently to how they would if they did not wear a mask. I don’t think one can trivialise the psychological factor and discard it as a non-issue. You read countless anecdotes on the internet of the “but I am wearing a mask” type and I see pictures every day from Western cities, with supposedly enlightened populaces, behaving as if the pandemic is no real problem. Large crowds are dangerous with or without masks. Masks makes it bit less dangerous obviously, but only if people behaves responsibly and do not alter their behaviour. I find pictures of large groups of people walking extremely close to each other very provocative, regardless of their mask usage or not. But sure, not wearing a mask is worse. But still, there should be no place for someone to make an apology saying “but I wore a mask”. That apology is unacceptable if the person behaved irresponsibly.
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As for masks I just think it gives an indication of how seriously a person takes this. For example I think someone who wears a mask is also much more likely to be someone who washes their hands and respects distancing. Such an outward indication imo is helpful and an important step in behaviour.
However I also sympathise with Magnus’ thinking. If wearing masks gives us too much confidence it could lead to people grouping and getting closer even sharing items they shouldn’t.
Somewhere there needs to be a balance and that can only come with good communication of good information.