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Thaddeus P. Bejnar's avatar

Maybe it is the risk of transmission that we should focus on, and not the risk of death.

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Murray Coueslant's avatar

When the UK began to vaccinate according to risk I asked myself a similar question. Is there more power in using the vaccine as a tool to break chains of transmission between the young and socially mobile, or should it be wielded as a preventer of death and suffering in the elderly and at risk? In my mind, as the son of a firefighter, it seems at first sensible to throw water on the raging flames so to speak; and vaccinate those with high degrees of social contact. However, like you and countless other folks mention, the rate of death in long term care and hospitals in the elderly age groups in stunning. Care homes are dangerous places to be. I’m glad that my country is taking the risk based approach, and I can only hope that the US manages to take enough of the same path that the behaviour of a strategy like that becomes emergent. Do you think that a mix of the two in differing municipalities depending on varying population age factors and trends in viral behaviour might show some interesting results? Or will it all be terrible as we’re becoming accustomed to?

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