How do you honestly THINK this will end?

[tollyfeeder]

Just that really....

I’m a very anxious person. I can’t see a light at the end of this very dark tunnel.

My version of the end is that the virus continues to spread. It mutates to be even more dangerous, with a 100% mortality.
It can’t be contained.
Civilisation will be destroyed.

Those that manage to avoid it will have to find ways to survive until eventually they catch it too......

Please don’t lay into me for my “end”
Right now this is honestly how I’m thinking and it’s a really scary place to be in.

Seriously how does everyone else think this will end?

It’s not in the virus’ interest to be 100% fatal. A virus doesn’t want to kill you, it isn’t evenly, it just wants to live and spread. Therefore it’s more likely to get milder rather than stronger if anything.

@tollyfeeder there will be an end to this, and it doesn’t end how you see it. You are anxious and that is understandable. It is a scary thing. But you need to look at the facts - and not let your “inner movie” play out.

Have a look at Tom Blunn and his anxiety coping methods. I found them very useful for my fear of flying.

I don’t know if it helps, but I have just recovered from suspected COVID-19. I feel fine. Most people will be like me, have very mild symptoms and then get 100% better very quickly.

Sorry, it’s Tom Bunn not Blunn. I honestly found it so useful as I have a habit of catastrophising and paying attention to the horror movie in my mind.

www.amazon.com/Panic-Free-Program-Anxiety-Claustrophobia/dp/1608686051?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

@Helpmechangemymindsetplease - oh no don't worry about that! I started a new relationship when I was 52, lived with him for several years and am now married, so it's not too late for you!

I think it will fizzle out in the UK at least by the end of May, restrictions for travel within the UK will be lifted then, and everything will re-open by mid-June. International travel will still be discouraged until September

HHow are you feeling op ?
Anxiety is horrible, I have it too and I get how it runs away with awful thoughts.
I am pretty sure I’ve had the corona virus too, me and the rest of my household. It’s not very nice but we are all ok now, it’s definitely not got a 100 % mortality rate.

I feel a bit calmer this week, before I felt like you, just try to stay away from the news, social media etc. Read books, listen to music, go for a walk in the park. It sounds like a cliche but it does work.

This too shall pass.

Don’t let your anxiety get the better of you, OP.

@Inkpaperstars great posts.
@tollyfeeder
Try to acknowledge your fears and then let them go. So you think about what you are afraid of, not meeting anybody and the end of civilisation, and respect how you feel, honour it, and then try and think or do something else.
What do you enjoy doing normally?
Have you got people to chat to?
Anything you’ve always wanted to do at home?
Try and change your inner voice to kindness towards yourself. It’s ok to be frightened, it doesn’t make you weak or less worthy. So feel it and then move on, always always being kind to yourself.

Current evidence is that it is mutating very slowly. Slower than the flu. So once you have had it it is unlikely you will get it again and certainly you will always have some level of base immunity. A vaccine will last longer than a year. About 60% of us will most likely get it and then the antibody test will enable us to understand and start living again.

I would like to imagine that this will cause a complete culture shift in China whereby the trade in endangered wild animals becomes morally and socially unacceptable, leading to the end of rhino poaching in Africa. However, the grief and financial cost of this crisis will be with us for at least a decade.

Realistically-

Things will get worse over the next few weeks for the UK and US and Australia.

But after that the effects of the lockdown procedures will flatten the curve.

The antibody test will start being rolled out across the country and those who are immune will be given a certificate or registration card to let them come out of lockdown to get things moving- expect to be redistributed to essential services for a good few months.

By the end of Summer/ beginning of Autumn it will be only the vulnerable or high risk in lockdown. Services for most things will still be patchy. Schools might go back for pupils with antibody certificates.

Vaccination programmes will start late autumn. Again, certificates or cards for the vaccinated.

More normal service resumes in the new year.

Might be a touch quicker than that. Anyone expecting this to be mostly over by Summer is dreaming.

OP, even the plague "only" killed 1/3 of people. If a virus kills its host, it dies too so they either mutate to be less damaging or they die out.

And then you have people who have, for whatever reason, a natural immunity so they just don't catch it. There was an article recently about people who got HIV but their physiology prevented the virus taking hold, something about their cell structure not allowing it (sorry very third hand from my husband telling me what he had read so very untechnical).

As for the human race dying out, we had the Spanish flu and two world wars in the 20th century, plus countless other wars and illnesses, yet the human population has never been so big!

Anyone expecting this to be mostly over by Summer is dreaming

China locked down (locally where the virus started) in late January and things have largely returned to normal, that is two months. I know they had a stricter lockdown than we have or are likely to have. However, I think we'll be locked down like this until the end of April and then things will start to gradually loosen. I can't see international travel starting up again for a while though, you don't want to let the virus back in and being an island has massive advantages we should make the most of. So I suspect summer holidays will have to be taken in the UK.

Last week of April, some people will be abe to return to work to straighten out large organisations. There will then be a gradual return. Schools back by mid May. Probably not universities.

Shops will open three/four days a week starting with places like Homebase.

It will be a resetting for things like health and social care and flexible working.

OP I accept you are very anxious at the moment but do you really think posting scenarios like that on a public website is fair or helpful?

From a personal point I worry in the medium term that my dh will not return to work as he is in the shielded group. I can't see how this group of people will no longer be susceptible until there is a vaccine.

I would say border controls and global travel will change and it will be unlikely to return to how it was. Business travel may become obsolete as has been proved now that there are other ways to communicate. This is probably one of the better consequences for our planet.

It will end, there will be (relative) poverty throughout what we currently think of as the rich parts of the world. More of these viruses will happen and because countries are poorer they will be able to do less and less to contain them. Plus the poverty itself will lead to more deaths.

Eventually, the world population will settle at a manageable level. It's all tremendously sad but there are too many people.

I think in the short term, treatments will improve and survival likelihood will increase. In the medium term adults will be vaccinated, and ultimately, covid will become a regular illness that most people get as children with few ill effects, but that those few who have a serious reaction will be able to be treated easily.

Nothing has 100% mortality.

Except life itself.

You’re obviously in a dark place and your mind is making catastrophic predictions . This will end , the mortality rate is actually quite low it’s the rate of spread causing the problem.
Think of the good things which are actually coming out of this , the constant fog has cleared from London. CO2 drastically reduced . The canals are clean in Venice again and most humans are finally pulling together and showing random acts of kindness.
That said it’s still awful for the NHS and the people this virus has had a awful effect on 😢

Shitsgettingcrazy I also suffer with anxiety, and have had similar thoughts to the op. Although the rational part of my brain knows that the virus is unlikely to wipe out humanity, in the wee small hours when you can't sleep it can look very bleak.
The op posted for reassurance, and you telling her off for not thinking how it may affect others is unhelpful. She has already asked people not to lay into her for her thoughts.
In your own words - did you stop to think how this could set the op off, who was just about coping before, after reading this?

I hope that there will be a big change in our economy so it doesn't depend on people buying STUFF to make it tick. Instead we could seriously increase birth control and appreciate all the animals, woodland etc and preserve that.

I'm hoping this, too.

That we take a sensible view of the effects we, as a species, have on the planet, allow our numbers to reduce by having smaller families(The Chinese "one child" policy was really only a disaster because everybody wanted a boy, so girls were dumped),consume fewer resources, pollute less and be more supportive of one another - become a society again, rather than everyone being out for themselves. (Thank you for that, Mrs Thatcher.)

The world will be in a depression/recession - it will be hard, but people will come through it. After the last war, entire cities were flattened and people were homeless and starving - hopefully it won't be as bad as that by a long way - but everywhere recovered socially and economically.

And I hope all the special snowflakes will find something better to do than post how much their "feelz" are hurst by misgendering, not being able to have fifty close relatives in a birthing suite with them, not being able to park right at the entrance to the supermarket because of the spots kept for blue badge holders etc

The virus itself will end and it'll be sooner than we think. This feels like forever but at some point in the near future we'll reach herd immunity and it'll be effectively done.
However, I think the impact is going to result in a huge shift in how we live our lives and order our priorities.
I'm expecting, for example, the NHS to be a major issue in the next election. People won't be happy about cuts and I suspect politicians will be vying to out do each other on how much they promise to it. I'm hoping that it'll result in a political shift to the left as people realise that a safety net is essential for a modern society.
Just a few months ago, the idea of being stuck in our homes for months wouldn't have occurred to any of us, but once this is all over, people are going to start prioritising things like having a garden when they buy a flat, or the ability to work from home when looking for a job.
We'll almost all start keeping more long life foods in the house. People who were planning on starting a cafe or restaurant might reconsider.
I think the world will look different culturally, politically and economically, although what that will be, I don't know.

It will be controlled over the next few months. In the meanwhile, scientists are learning a massive amount about this virus (and others), and so are the British population.
I think we're going to be a lot more aware that British people can die from nasty viruses too, and we have to take more responsibility for our own health.

We should use this as a learning experience and a wake up call to what we are doing to the earth. And briefly we will, then sadly all our instincts will kick in and we will go back to wanting things just like they were.

The mortality rate won’t increase this is a clever little virus, killing a host is never really the aim as that in effect kills it. This one wants to survive so it’s best bet is to become milder and endemic