The race between herd immunity and a vaccine

     We have all heard that the pandemic will not end until we achieve herd immunity or there is a vaccine.  The estimated timeframe for a vaccine is 18 months to 2 years.  This is explained as the fastest that any vaccine has ever been developed.  Even more discouraging is that many viruses such as AIDS has never had a vaccine developed.



    As the Memorial Day weekend coincides with the beginning of many states opening up the restrictions we have been living with for 2 months, we will see how fast the virus expands back toward where we were when we started our social distancing.  The picture above from Arkansas shows it is naive to think people will continue social distancing with the warmer weather.  The only hope for a different outcome is that we have more testing and contact tracing.
     One lesson learned with this virus is that much more needs to be done to protect those most vulnerable to the virus.  Nursing home, prisons, meatpacking plants and other vulnerable sites need to be tested frequently and isolated quickly will dramatically lower the death rate.  Maryland's number of deaths would be reduced by 50% if you eliminated the nursing home deaths.  Social distancing the entire population seems to be something that you can only do for a short period of time.  Looks like the United States will follow Sweden to test out how fast we reach herd immunity.

P.S.
     So Trump wants our religious congregations to open up this weekend for services.  I wonder if we will see Trump attend one of these packed services with unmasked congregants?  He could read a passage from his favorite book of 2 Corinthians.  Nope, he went looking for Jesus on the golf course again.

P.S. 1
     100,00 and counting.  Was he right?