Treatments Keep Getting Better, so Tell Me Again Why We Need Vaccine Mandates?

AstraZeneca logs upbeat trial results from COVID drug (medicalxpress.com)

British pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca on Monday revealed more positive results from a trial of a treatment for COVID-19 symptoms.

The drug, made from a combination of two antibodies, achieved a "statistically significant reduction in severe COVID-19 or death" in non-hospitalised patients with mild-to-moderate symptoms, AstraZeneca said in a statement.

The group's treatment, known as AZD7442, has been undergoing phase 3 or final clinical trials to assess its safety and efficacy.

"With continued cases of serious COVID-19 infections across the globe, there is a significant need for new therapies like AZD7442 that can be used to protect vulnerable populations ... and can also help prevent progression to severe disease," said principal trial investigator Hugh Montgomery.

Look, the vaccines are good. But they aren’t as effective as we expected. That’s clear. It’s also clear that we’re not going to eradicate this disease. So, we need to be able to treat it effectively. If we can get the disease to be not significantly worse than the flu, wouldn’t that be a good thing?

Wouldn’t not needing vaccine mandates be a good thing? We don’t require people to get flu shots. We strongly encourage, but we don’t mandate.