Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I live in New Zealand, we’re basically letting COVID rip now.

At least we were lucky enough to get to a high vaccination rate before Omicron started, it’s super infectious.

I got it despite 3 vaccinations and always masking up outside with KN95. But very mild which I guess was the point.

Because of the many lockdowns before, this was the strategy of the government, any more lockdowns would guarantee change of government next election.



> we’re basically letting COVID rip now

This is the way.

Vaccinate the population as much as possible, then pursue super immunity for what's to come via exposure to this luckily less severe and highly contagious variant while the vaccines are still potent.


I don't know how people square "let everyone get it" with points about how immunity after getting it only seems to stick around for 2 months, or even less with variants!

Unless you're saying we should purposefully infect everyone at the same time. I don't have a better answer, but I don't like pretending that this will magically improve just cuz everyone gets sick once.


This is in the context of New Zealand, which has a high vaccination rate. We're not talking about unvaccinated populations.

AIUI lasting immunity is most robust through exposure to the virus after vaccination. Greater than booster shots.


Also furthering the COVID Zero policy while participating in the global economy is just not feasible now. If every country did what New Zealand did, we would have stomped out this virus the same way we did SARS. I'm sorry that we didn't. But now that major economic zones like Europe and the Americas are taking a "treat COVID like the flu" approach, countries like New Zealand and Taiwan need to choose between following suit or committing to perpetual, never-ending isolation.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: