How do you picture this virus finally ending

[*DisneyDreamer]

Extremely heartbreaking what is happening in Brazil. Deeply concerned of a very lethal variant developing. I honestly don’t think we’ll see any improvements until 2024/2025.

I choose to try to be more optimistic than that. I can’t fathom the thought of living this way until 2024. The virus isn’t going away, but we will adapt, even if it’s not in the 2019 way. I agree that we’ll probably need booster vaccinations like the flu.

 

[rwdavis2]

IMHO, once enough people are vaccinated and the vaccines is effective Covid will be considered like the flu is. The vaccines all lessen the severity if you do get Covid in spite of being vaccinated.

Just think, how much have you heard of the flu this winter? The masking and distancing probably lessened the number of cases.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Remember life before there were (x) computers and now there is life after (x) computers. Lots of people freaked out and refused to change but you can't stop change and (x) computers changed absolutely everything about our lives but life goes on so that you get a new normal because new people are born everyday who just accept the new as normal and older people end up adapting by either learning or ignoring the new stuff until there are two full sets of experience and then eventually the old set phases out... so this.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Exactly how our lives are. I barely even remember there is a pandemic until Disboards reminds me

Same. We don’t talk about it in my day to day life. I do work at a hospital and get a daily covid dashboard update but that’s it. I don’t watch the news so I don’t hear it there. I have vacations planned. Today is my sons bday and we’re going to a local pub and having some drinks and dinner with friends (there is reduced capacity and we can’t sit at the bar) but we’re going on with life. My life hasn’t changed much (well we did lock down from March-May) except we can’t go to things that are closed (clubs, sporting events, etc) and we wear masks where required. I still have brunch with my friends, I still visit family, I still attend bday parties and grad parties and all that. When I’m out I never think “I might catch covid if I do this.” It doesn’t cross my mind.

 

[BrianL]

It will end like any other pandemic. Eventually we will reach a good level of immunity and move on. Restrictions will be relaxed and everyone will forget all about it, take no heed from lessons learned, and be totally unprepared for the next time it happens. Pretty typical.

 

[jsmith]

The Spanish flu pandemic ended with herd immunity after about 18 months. While Flu is endemic the pandemic ended and the fear and restrictions ended. The vaccines seem to be reducing transmission and hospitalisations, we may all need boosters regularly but I see no reason for this to be different it ends with herd immunity, hopefully this year or next year.

Actually the virus mutated to a less virulent form. We do not and have never had herd immunity to influenza-what have had since about 1930 is fairly effective vaccinations and an array of anti virals that are effective enough to blunt most years to a dull roar. Covid prevention efforts have been very successful with influenza as well but clearly we will notkeep that as an on going thing. Covid will be much the same. It will stay with us but effective vaccination and overtime we will develop more effective treatments but it will continue to kill people and leave people with life long issues going forward. Smallpox impacted the human population for roughly 3500 years and there were other long history virus's basically through human history. Influenza emerged about 1000 years ago and still has pandemic years ( 2009 was the most recent). Over time we will become comfortable with the risk, just as with the flu-and then something else will emerge. Return to normal will be slightly different at least for a time ( sanitizers, and spacing will remain more common for some time to come) but humans are humans and we will go back to old behaviors fairly quickly. The scar on our collective psyche will remain until the majority of those who have lived through it have passed on.

 

[georgina]

While the US may reach some form of herd immunity, it will take years for some parts of the world to get vaccinated, and with easy travel the virus and new variants will continue to be with us for quite a while

 

[DLgal]

It won't end, it will just slowly fade from the foreground of our news reporting, our discussions, and our government priorities.

I feel like we will actually "forget" about flu/flu deaths. They will stop reporting on those and Covid will replace it. We will continue to see approx 200,000 annual Covid deaths for a long time. We will see people wearing masks during what will become "covid season."

I guess that life will largely return to normal, but things will never be the same. People won't crowd into small spaces voluntarily. You will see smaller "maximum capacities" at events, etc. Remote work will have expanded to a larger population of employees. Places will advertise better cleaning protocols and ventilation, in order to entice people to visit and gain back lost business.

We will hopefully continue to have annual Covid shots that are up to date with the latest variants. Hopefully, they will find a way to do this that isn't the logistical nightmare we have right now.

 

[DLgal]

Actually the virus mutated to a less virulent form. We do not and have never had herd immunity to influenza-what have had since about 1930 is fairly effective vaccinations and an array of anti virals that are effective enough to blunt most years to a dull roar. Covid prevention efforts have been very successful with influenza as well but clearly we will notkeep that as an on going thing. Covid will be much the same. It will stay with us but effective vaccination and overtime we will develop more effective treatments but it will continue to kill people and leave people with life long issues going forward. Smallpox impacted the human population for roughly 3500 years and there were other long history virus's basically through human history. Influenza emerged about 1000 years ago and still has pandemic years ( 2009 was the most recent). Over time we will become comfortable with the risk, just as with the flu-and then something else will emerge. Return to normal will be slightly different at least for a time ( sanitizers, and spacing will remain more common for some time to come) but humans are humans and we will go back to old behaviors fairly quickly. The scar on our collective psyche will remain until the majority of those who have lived through it have passed on.

All this. The kids who were born in 2020 and beyond will be the first generation who will grow up to say "I didn't really experience the coronavirus pandemic, but my parents told me about it."

 

[mi*vida*loca]

All this. The kids who were born in 2020 and beyond will be the first generation who will grow up to say "I didn't really experience the coronavirus pandemic, but my parents told me about it."

And these kids will have so many different versions of the pandemic. Some will hear that it was overblown, some will hear that it wasn’t real, some will hear that their families lived a daily normal life and nothing changed, some will hear that their families stayed in the house for over a year, some will hear of family members lost, etc. I wonder what I’ll tell my grandkids one day.

 

[DebbieB]

All this. The kids who were born in 2020 and beyond will be the first generation who will grow up to say "I didn't really experience the coronavirus pandemic, but my parents told me about it."

It hill me a couple years ago that children coming of age (18) were not around for 9/11.

 

[FairestOfThemAll37]

Either we’ll get vaccinated and it’ll fade and we’ll accept the yearly lower number of deaths from Covid like we do the flu or the variants will rise up and it’ll wipe out 1/3 of the global population and be the downfall of modern civilization

 

[GreatLakes]

It will never go away. We will have a combination of immunity, vaccination, and the most vulnerable sadly dying. What should happen, but likely won't because as a species we are lazy, is we learn from this that overall health is the most important factor in adapting to future viruses. With the exception of age which is just an inevitable part of not dying the vast majority of comorbidities are preventable.

If we collectively ate better, exercised more, got more sleep, didn't smoke or vape, and lived a healthier life we would have seen less death and less strain on the medical field that ultimately caused the need for lockdowns in the first place.

There are also the adaptions we make all the way down at the DNA level, that can actually make us a stronger species post-virus. I've been listening to a few podcasts that talk about the DNA-level adaptations viruses make in our genome and while some members of the species die off because of it the end result is usually a stronger genetic code. These adaptions combined with herd immunity will bring the death rate closer to the flu and life will go on just as it did after 1918.

 

[Kitty 34]

And these kids will have so many different versions of the pandemic. Some will hear that it was overblown, some will hear that it wasn’t real, some will hear that their families lived a daily normal life and nothing changed, some will hear that their families stayed in the house for over a year, some will hear of family members lost, etc. I wonder what I’ll tell my grandkids one day.

It does make one wonder how the History books will portray Covid 19, also.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

It does make one wonder how the History books will portray Covid 19, also.

And let’s not forget those that lost everything. Jobs, homes, filed bankruptcy, etc because they were laid off or forced to close their businesses.

 

[Kitty 34]

And let’s not forget those that lost everything. Jobs, homes, filed bankruptcy, etc because they were laid off or forced to close their businesses.

Yes, sadly enough, those books will have many chapters.

 

[Dznypal]

I know weve had the spanish flu polio hong kong flu but I dont remember any of those shutting the world down like this is doing--and to think how far technogies medicine and science have come since those
all I remember of the polio vaccine was eating a sugar cube with the vaccine in it

 

[mrodgers]

WW3 with even more bioweapons being developed.

 

[cabanafrau]

I suspect it's not going away, but simply will not be a novel virus able to present quite the same widespread health emergency anymore.

 

[mom2rtk]

We will reap what's been sown for many years to come.

Sadly.