Australia reached Covid-zero because people logged their outings and reported Covid infections, which enabled the Australian government to track cases and notify those who were in close contact. It closed its borders and forced citizens who arrived from overseas to quarantine in hotels at no cost, and tests and vaccinations were free. Then, Australia gave up, and I don't understand.
Limit incoming infections, test, trace, treat, a gold standard. I don't get the giving up part, either. A friend of mine who talks about fitness a lot says, regarding people who stop doing things that they should be doing, "It worked so well that I stopped doing it." It is absolutely baffling.
I think you are right that safety in a time of pandemics is going to require isolation. Although forming a community built around this seems like a VERY high hurdle. As a group you are going to have to move together to an isolated area AND then make it work. Do you remember the Biosphere 2 experiment?
You would basically be committing to something like that as a way of life.
I just have difficulty believing you can find/recruit the right group of people to make that work. Not without some "extra motivation" driving your members. How do feel about starting a cult? You would have a better shot at this if you were a cult leader and isolation was part of your doctrine.
The only real alternative is to move to a very remote isolated community and try to integrate yourself socially there. Something like one of the Faroe or Shetland islands. Low population, very isolated, limited contact with the outside world. With a clear enough threat you could probably get community support for the things you are suggesting.
This is going to be an issue in the decades to come. We are moving out of the Golden Age of mass vaccination and going back to a grimmer time. I wrote an essay on Reddit about this. Imagining the Collapse 01 : The Return of "Virgin Field" Pandemics.
In 1846 a Danish physician investigated an outbreak of measles among the isolated Faroe Islands.
"By Panum’s time, measles symptoms and complications were widely understood, though there were conflicting theories of how the disease spread and uncertainty about its time course and infectivity. Today, measles is no longer terrifying to many, and the comparison risks leading people to take Covid-19 less seriously. But measles highlights the damage that a “novel” virus can do and the complexities sometimes obscured by such terms as “naive,” “novel,” and “vulnerable.”
From: “The Sombre Aspect of the Entire Landscape” — Epidemiology and the Faroe Islands
When Panum went to the Faroes, he was observing measles in another isolated population; the infection had last occurred on the islands in 1781, so people under 65 years of age had no previous exposure and therefore no immunity."
In 1846, about 6,100 of the 7,864 people living in the Faroe Islands contracted measles, and 170 died, resulting in a case fatality rate of 2.8%
THAT'S A 77.5% INFECTION RATE.
Antibody immunity isn’t passed down genetically. Once all the antibody "immunes" age out of a population it’s “virgin field” again.
Once Collapse gets going and public health programs stop being funded. Once the pool of vaccinated people in the population shrinks.
Virgin Field Pandemics will return.
At some point, communities are going to become VERY disease aware and VERY strict about isolation protocols and quarantines. Because every stranger who comes through might bring DEATH to your entire community just by being in the same room.
That's what a future without vaccination is going to be like.
In my case it would be a community of one.
Me too.
Thank you, Michael for this clear analysis.
I divorced my husband because he refused to choose life and instead chose his "freedumb".
And this was AFTER he had to have heart surgery to repair the damage done by COVID.
I am lonely, but atleast I am still alive and well.
Forming a "community of mutual aid" had been something on my To Do list for a year now.
I have yet to solve the puzzle of "with whom?".
I know a grand total of 2 other people on my island home who are COVID Conscious/Airborne Aware - and they are elderly and ill.
After reading your thoughts I am considering cross it off my To Do list and looking for other ways to endure.
Australia reached Covid-zero because people logged their outings and reported Covid infections, which enabled the Australian government to track cases and notify those who were in close contact. It closed its borders and forced citizens who arrived from overseas to quarantine in hotels at no cost, and tests and vaccinations were free. Then, Australia gave up, and I don't understand.
Limit incoming infections, test, trace, treat, a gold standard. I don't get the giving up part, either. A friend of mine who talks about fitness a lot says, regarding people who stop doing things that they should be doing, "It worked so well that I stopped doing it." It is absolutely baffling.
I think you are right that safety in a time of pandemics is going to require isolation. Although forming a community built around this seems like a VERY high hurdle. As a group you are going to have to move together to an isolated area AND then make it work. Do you remember the Biosphere 2 experiment?
You would basically be committing to something like that as a way of life.
I just have difficulty believing you can find/recruit the right group of people to make that work. Not without some "extra motivation" driving your members. How do feel about starting a cult? You would have a better shot at this if you were a cult leader and isolation was part of your doctrine.
The only real alternative is to move to a very remote isolated community and try to integrate yourself socially there. Something like one of the Faroe or Shetland islands. Low population, very isolated, limited contact with the outside world. With a clear enough threat you could probably get community support for the things you are suggesting.
This is going to be an issue in the decades to come. We are moving out of the Golden Age of mass vaccination and going back to a grimmer time. I wrote an essay on Reddit about this. Imagining the Collapse 01 : The Return of "Virgin Field" Pandemics.
https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1ghjjb1/imagining_the_collapse_01_the_return_of_virgin/
In 1846 a Danish physician investigated an outbreak of measles among the isolated Faroe Islands.
"By Panum’s time, measles symptoms and complications were widely understood, though there were conflicting theories of how the disease spread and uncertainty about its time course and infectivity. Today, measles is no longer terrifying to many, and the comparison risks leading people to take Covid-19 less seriously. But measles highlights the damage that a “novel” virus can do and the complexities sometimes obscured by such terms as “naive,” “novel,” and “vulnerable.”
From: “The Sombre Aspect of the Entire Landscape” — Epidemiology and the Faroe Islands
Authors: Perri Klass, M.D., and Adam J. Ratner, M.D. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1761-794XAuthor Info & Affiliations Published March 26, 2022
When Panum went to the Faroes, he was observing measles in another isolated population; the infection had last occurred on the islands in 1781, so people under 65 years of age had no previous exposure and therefore no immunity."
In 1846, about 6,100 of the 7,864 people living in the Faroe Islands contracted measles, and 170 died, resulting in a case fatality rate of 2.8%
THAT'S A 77.5% INFECTION RATE.
Antibody immunity isn’t passed down genetically. Once all the antibody "immunes" age out of a population it’s “virgin field” again.
Once Collapse gets going and public health programs stop being funded. Once the pool of vaccinated people in the population shrinks.
Virgin Field Pandemics will return.
At some point, communities are going to become VERY disease aware and VERY strict about isolation protocols and quarantines. Because every stranger who comes through might bring DEATH to your entire community just by being in the same room.
That's what a future without vaccination is going to be like.