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At the present burn rate the USA will have the infection rampant for
several years or until an effective vaccine is developed. Either way the
limiting factor will be herd immunity lowering the effective R value.
--
Regards,
Martin Brown
In article <rcvl5f$rko$1@gioia.aioe.org>,
Martin Brown <\'\'\'newspam\'\'\'@nezumi.demon.co.uk> wrote:
SNIP
At the present burn rate the USA will have the infection rampant for
several years or until an effective vaccine is developed. Either way the
limiting factor will be herd immunity lowering the effective R value.
I looked a long time at this sentence to find out what was intuitively wrong.
The correct way to express this is
\"
Either way the limiting factor will be that sufficient people are immune
lowering the effective R value to under 1.
Then we have reached herd immunity which is by definition that
for the population at large R is under 1.
\"
You are excused somewhat because herd immunity is misnomer.
The herd is not immune to the disease, the herd is no longer susceptible
to an epidemic. I call it herd-immunity, to stress that it is
a word combination that has a specific meaning like flying-fox
(which is a bat not a fox).
\"
Having a single number for the whole population is simplistic.
You could for example have a population that is divided in two
cohorts (lets name them red and blue, pun intended) where the
red\'s have a higher R value and a larger part that is immune,
the blue\'s have a lower R value and a lesser part that is immune.
The effective R will be between the two. The blues would be much
better off without the red\'s.
The herd-immunity figure can be calculated with a single R model
and perfect mixing of the population, meaning that the chance
of being infected by any other specimen of the population
is equally likely. (This is not at all unreasonable... for
a herd.)
Now we arrive at a model with N cattle and I infected:
I\' = (N-I)R
This dies out with the result that every cattle is infected.
Now we could have a headstart, replacing N by N-I_0.
This also dies out, but now not all the non-immune cattle is
infected. (Hurrah!).
I never before thought herd-immunity through because it is
so absurd as a policy, but once you do it is clear that
the level of immunity required is very much dependant on R.
In other words if you want to reach herd-immunity earlier,
with a less death toll, wear masks, keep social distance, avoid gathering.
And keep doing that for eternity.
It stresses again the absurdity of herd immunity through infection.
The only viable options are:
1. exterminate through isolation and tracing (china, vietnam, korea, taiwan)
2. vaccination (USA UK EU)
On Monday, November 30, 2020 at 8:39:21 PM UTC+11, Martin Brown wrote:
The urban poor on the breadline cannot afford to be off sick so they go to
work anyway thus spreading the disease. Some even work in factories where
social distancing is all but impossible and for unscrupulous employers who
don\'t really care either.
This is plausible - to some extent - but sounds more like propaganda than
anything evidence-based.
On 30/11/20 13:00, Bill Sloman wrote:
On Monday, November 30, 2020 at 8:39:21 PM UTC+11, Martin Brown wrote:
The urban poor on the breadline cannot afford to be off sick so they go to
work anyway thus spreading the disease. Some even work in factories where
social distancing is all but impossible and for unscrupulous employers who
don\'t really care either.
This is plausible - to some extent - but sounds more like propaganda than
anything evidence-based.
There\'s always that danger, but there have been some disquieting
revelations.
Meat processing plants, here and in the US, have seemed to be a
problem w.r.t. spreading disease - but that could be the PETA
brigade spreading misinformation.
There do seem to be a few outbreaks associated with supermarket
workers, and my inside data points indicate the industry definitely
tries to keep specific information under wraps.