Gloomy Prospect

[tiggerblue10]

I've been thinking about this a lot over the last few weeks and now for someone to actually say it kind of brings it home.

https://metro.co.uk/2020/04/07/top-coronavirus-expert-warns-new-normal-might-never-go-away-12522661/

[Cloverjo]

It is gloomy. But let’s be hopeful. A vaccine could be found soon enough for us to return to the ‘previous normal’ in time.

[tiggerblue10]

I really hope so!

[ichkeria]

It probably will never go away.
It’s unlikely to.
But people build immunity over time and vaccines become available.
It depends how aggressively it reinvents itself

[jno]

a vaccine would be useful. But it may be like flu - a new strain develops every few years.

[JimF]

A tad sensationalist. The key words here are "without a vaccine". Work is already progressing on this, and there's little doubt that a vaccine will (eventually) be developed, available and effective.

[Peter Pedant]

I think you have to take it in context
Fauci is speaking about America - the society there if you recall was resistant to the President or Fed authorities to take a hand

we expected the govt to take a hand immediately

Fauci may well have had in mind the idea that
estrictions should/could be lifted without consequences

far too early to say if it is present in the population
and whether it will mutate

Mers and Sars just 'stopped' - the cases turned up and then they didnt.

[douglas9401]

You have to bear in mind that a 'top coronavirus expert' is pretty much a doctor flying by the seat of their pants, doing the best they can without knowing everything but to glove up and keep distance.

Otherwise we'd be out of the woods and back in the pub, bruised but alive.

[andy-hughes]

This is typical of Metro - make a headline say something that wasn't actually said at all.

What the gentleman said was - "‘If back to normal means acting like there never was a coronavirus problem, I don’t think that’s going to happen until we do have a situation where you can completely protect the population."

Which means it joins flu, pneumonia, cancer, and a host of other conditions diseases and viruses that humanity exists with on a daily basis.

Of course the world will never be as it was before the virus, but that does not mean that normality will not, to all intents and purposes, return, because it will - with one more nasty bug to look to eradicate.

[Prudie]

Try not to worry so much about it Tiggs. I am absolutely not belittling what's going on but don't forget coronavirus is in the same family as the common cold and we've never got rid of that but have learned to live with it - as are the many in the world who've got over coronavirus.

[malagabob]

But who says the virus isn’t mutating in the human population and the vaccine will be useless for the new strain.

[JimF]

Nobody is saying that. And that's why we'll probably need a jab every year, just like the flu jab. But so what? If that's what it takes, I'm rolling my sleeve up!

[TonyV]

A vaccine will not be available until at least till of this year, developing time and testing.

[JimF]

You mean "till the end of"?

Yes, that's almost certainly correct. And, as soon as it is, I'll take it.

[emmie]

but one will be found and then we can't start to stabilise

[emmie]

that should say can start to stabilise......

[Theland]

What is gloomy is the fact that Covid 19 has had such a widespread and irreversible effect on the world, from the global economy, political instability, and authoritarian government to name just a few.
Our world will never be the same again, and the permanent changes will be frightening.

[TonyV]

Ok emmie will take a year to prepare and test.

[emmie]

no i don;t believe the changes will be frightening, things will revert to what passes for normal one day hopefully in the not too distant future....

[emmie]

i think that is what the experts are saying, but this is a concerted effort by all countries, scientists, medical experts, and that could mean a breakthrough before...
i sure hope so

[TonyV]

Maybe they can fast track it?