Infection rates may still matter if we end up with lots of people off work with it (I can see it being like Noro Virus in that you have to stay off work if you have it).Just_a_fan wrote: ↑05 Mar 2021, 13:38Exactly. Infection rates are much less important than hospitalisation rates. If everyone catches it but no one needs medical intervention then the infections don't matter.
Having said that, there is a small subset that might have long term issues with reduced lung capacity, but those won't be known about if they don't require medical intervention. Of course, that intervention might not be required for many years after the infection itself, but that can't be second guessed now.
But yeah, hospitalisation rates are what matter now, even more so than fatality rates, and that is what the UK government is putting the emphasis on with the easing of things.