When will the Coronavirus end?

[NathanNathan]

Just read this article on the BBC: www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51963486

My reading of what was said there is that there may be no real end in sight.

Could others give me their opinions?

I think if the Professor of Infectious diseases in the article doesn't know then your guess is as good as mine.

Never. It’s here to stay.
We either live like hermits for ever and all starve to death because no one will have any money / die of medical stuff we can’t get help or medicines for or we take our chances.
That’s my view anyway.
We can be locked away for however long but it won’t get rid of it.

Looking at spanish flu that lasted 2 years. Today they reckon a vaccine will be available in about a year and the government are thinking of an 18 month plan. So no one knows how long it will last but hopefully it wont be a year.

This initial wave looks like being mostly suppressed by September. There will be smaller re-occurrences after then until probably September next year when hopefully everyone will be vaccinated.

This is just guessing from the graphs that are out there and and the imperial college document though but I feel a bit better knowing at least roughly what to expect.

Of course it will end. Not the virus, I mean, but this chaos. The virus will continue its rampage until we find an anti body test and a vaccine. Then it will reduce and become like the rest of the seasonal flu viruses- popping up in spurts on occasion throughout the next decade or so. By then, the vaccine will have suppressed it to a manageable level so it doesnt cause this chaos again.

And hopefully lessons will be learned so that the next time a new virus with the potential to cause a pandemic arise, even if it's not for another 100 years, we don't make the same mistakes.

My guess would be that once this current outbreak is suppressed they will relax the rules slightly and focus on isolated outbreaks. I did wonder whether that would possibly mean isolating towns/areas. This would require much more testing than we’re currently seeing.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see gatherings limited to a certain number of people to make tracing a viable tool.

The general public will probably be a lot more inclined to be cautious and isolate if needed after this outbreak too. Employers need to figure out a way to work with increased absences.

I have read that we will have to have a 12 week lockdown, then release for a bit, then another 12 week lockdown and continue doing this for 18 months until a vaccine is made, that is hoping that one can be made as immunity to this virus is not certain so a vaccine may not work at all!

It depends on whether they find a cure in the coming weeks or not. It looks likely they will, and are into human trials now. If they can prescribe medication that prevents people getting to the second stage of respiratory disease and cures them if they do, then this becomes something manageable.

Right now it relies on two things, the first being social distancing to slow it down, and give people the best chance of treatment if they need it, and this needs to continue until they can cure it, with limited need for hospitalisation.

After that clearly a vaccine is required, but that’s later.

If scientists are able to cure it, they can manage this much more easily and people getting it will not be such a concern.