Episode 84: COVID Mutates Rapidly. Still, We Will Thrive

A friend of the show sent me an article that describes the rapidity with which COVID mutates, and it seems now that the best available evidence points to COVID mutating--or, more accurately, evolving--rapidly enough that our vaccines will only ever give imperfect protection. If that is indeed the case, then it follows that the vaccine is not going to lead to the end of COVID. COVID will not be going the way of smallpox. It will be more like the flu: though the pandemic is likely to end, we will continue to see outbreaks. With that in mind, how should we meet this latest information? How do we go forward most skillfully, when so many of us have pinned hopes to the end of coronavirus, rather than, as seems likely, a situation in which it's less all-encompassing but still relevant in our lives?

The NPR story I speak about in the introduction can be found here.

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