There were already signs of sections of the Establishment being prepared to put up with SARS-Cov-2 rather than continue to fight it. It was enough to stir memories of my young years and the dismissal of measles, mumps, chicken-pox and German measles (now rubella) as minor childhood diseases, almost a rite of passage. Gradually it was realised that they were not so benign - effects on the lungs in the case of measles, sterility in young males caused by mumps and the effects on pregnancy by rubella. This increasing knowledge drove the development of vaccines for the diseases culminating in the combined MMR.
Now it seems that the general public is sleep-walking into another measles epidemic and will be rudely reminded that measles can be a killer or lead to long-term damage at least as serious as "long Covid". One does not even have to rely on the memories of my generation. The stupid anti-vax campaign by the then Evening Post editor made a major contribution to a measles outbreak in the Swansea area less than thirty years ago.
I would like to see advances in vaccine technology applied to other illnesses, particularly respiratory infections, which we have hitherto taken for granted. There must be a way of tackling the variability of influenza virus. There are also adenoviruses, rhinoviruses and other coronaviruses which cause economic losses every year. Maybe mine is an extreme position, but at least we should not be going backwards.
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