Will it go away?

[Imahappycamper101]

I am no scientist, no idea how viruses work so this is just me wondering..is there a chance the virus will just work it’s way through some of the population and die out? I hate the restrictions at the minute, can’t wait for life to be back to normal and to be able to actually sit beside my mum and dad with no worries- even if we are allowed to visit small groups I’ll still have the feeling of guilt that I may pass it on. My dad is on the shielding list so it’ll be a long time before I can sit beside him, this breaks my heart. He was supposed to be giving me away at my wedding this year, that’s been put back a year. As a born worrier, I can’t help worry -we never know how long we have our loved ones will be here, what if my dad isn’t here at this later date for my wedding? Lockdown is getting to me 😔

There's a few ways this could end. Through social distancing, the virus might fizzle out if everyone infects less than one other person on average. Or if enough people become immune through getting it, that would make it hard to keep passing around and the same thing would happen. Or a vaccine could be found, or a treatment. Lockdown is rubbish and I'm sorry you're having to put back your wedding and can't see your dad.

I’m sure like everyone else, I just wish the virus would go away! I went to see my mum today for a social distanced happy birthday wave, I’ve missed all but one of my families birthday through lockdown, it’s sucks 😔 so many people are putting their lives on hold, I just wish there was a light at the end of the tunnel

Professor Karol Sikora said today on Twitter he thinks there's a chance the virus could burn itself out. Some viruses do that. But he didn't offer any real evidence to back up the claim.

It seems there are just too many unknowns at the moment for anyone to make decisions!

It’s the unknown that gets to so many people I think, we are so used to having a problem and knowing what we can do to solve it. Now it’s out of our hands, we don’t know how long we’ll have to live like this and it’s awful. If we knew it would be gone by dec 2020 for example, at least we would have something to work towards!

It might do. SARS did. Spanish flu did (albeit killing far too many people). It might be gone before a vaccine is developed. It could take a while though.

I think soon we will have a better idea of timescales. A lot of data are being analysed by a lot of scientists. We will see if there is any evidence of a second wave emerging in countries which have reopened. So I would think perhaps in 6 weeks we will have a better sense of things.

I’m not a scientist either but have been following a few respectable scientists over the last two months. Not coronavirus specialists but immunologists and similar with long expertise.
The main message based on past infections and the way this virus has behaved so far, is that we need to be prepared to live with the virus for the foreseeable future or forever because it will not go away. There isn’t going to be a suitable vaccine available to everyone in the world for at least two years and there might never be a vaccine.
There is more likely that we’d have a set of protocols for ‘treatments’ that shorten the duration of infection. These are already being developed and, indeed, used, more of a trial and error exercise at present but promising.
We have to adapt to a new way of life and adopt a set of measures to prevent infection, re-infection and spread. This is not impossible and should be rolled out so that people can get on with life, albeit in a different format.
Things are always changing so these are opinions based on extensive professional experience based on current knowledge about this particular virus.
But the loudest message is that we need to be prepared for similar outbreaks in the future from other viruses so that our lives and economies won’t have to go through this turmoil again.
So no, the virus won’t go away; despite the awful developments this is not a death sentence for humanity as a whole and the world needs to adapt through behaviour changes and be prepared for future similar events to avoid catastrophic disruptions.
As regards consequent waves of infection post lockdowns, the second wave is likely to be bigger than the first so measures needs to be applied in good time to reduce this. And it is very likely there will be waves (smaller) for the foreseeable future.
These can be reduced but not avoided.
All these are dry level headed opinions not Scaremongering. The observational fact remains that the vast majority of people won’t be visibly affected severely by the virus. One of the unknown remains that we don’t how anything about re-infection or if a first infection has any long term effects (either positive in the sense of future protection to this and other viruses or negative of any health implications).

Just because it is though it won’t go away it doesn’t mean we beed to remain in lockdown for ever. As screening gets better I don’t see why we can’t have a rota segregation system for going to work, school , travelling etc. Travelling for business I mean.
I haven’t hugged anyone outside my home for two months!! Imagine being able to do that in my lifetime again!!!
Seriously though, we’ll navigate through this somehow alongside the virus.