Is Covid just going to overwhelm the whole world

[BumbleWumble]

The number of cases globally is now over 11 million. Deaths are at nearly 525,000. It seems to me it won't be long before this disease has overwhelmed the whole world. I can't see how it isn't going to just roll on and on eventually into the billions.

Even in countries that have managed to get the numbers down are likely to see a resurgence from what I understand. That will probably actually be resurgence after resurgence. As far as I can see the only way out is a vaccine, with all 8 billion people being vaccinated, and there is no guarantee that one will ever be found or that the huge task of giving it to the entire population of the world could be accomplished.

It just seems to me that the future for the whole of humanity will likely consist of living in constant fear of this awful disease, which will gradually swallow us up. I understand that in many countries they already had to live alongside deadly contagious diseases. Maybe they are more used to it, but Covid is certainly a terrible one to be added to the mix. And surely eventually due its huge level of contagiousness the number of victims will dwarf that of any other ailment.

I just can't see much hope for any one. I am extremely anxious about this so maybe my perception is skewed, but I just see it ending up an unprecedented disaster in terms of number of cases and fatalities.

Get a grip of yourself. Seriously

There are 7 BILLION people in the world. Half a million deaths really isn't a lot in the grand scheme, a terrible sadness, but not a huge amount compared to 7 billion people.

75 million people died during World War Two in 6 years out of 2.5 billion people.

We will survive this;
there'll be a a vaccine, better treatments and we will bounce back again, better than ever

and within 2-3 years the global economy will have bounced back too

I think you need to see the GP OP. This behaviour and thought process is not normal sorry

Anyone can post here
and the OP is as entitled to vent her fears as the "it's only flu" merchants.

Most of us are in neither extreme of doom-mongers vs deniers:
it's a crisis; we'll mostly be sensible; it shall pass

I hope you are OK OP. I suffer terribly from anxiety and sympathise completely. Some days it really does feel like the world will never feel safe again.
Like other posters have said though, the world has had much worse and come through, we just have to wait it out. In the mean time don't watch the news and try to distract yourself as much as possible (that's how I'm coping anyway).

"We don't worry about the rest of the world "

True
This pandemic is a global crisis, 24-hour news. because it is killing people in developed countries,
whereas other mass deaths in modern times have been in developing countries

• we're used to millions dying far away, who are "not like us"

However, it does mean that the vast scientific resources of the developed world are working on treatments and vaccine as never before.

So this virus will soon be tamed by modern medicine, instead of by lockdowns

It's a massive wake up call that we ALL need to take pretty simple hygiene precautions, like regular hand washing and basic cleanliness like keeping surfaces/handrails/buttons regularly cleaned.

It was interesting living in Hong Kong and seeing how they dealt with Covid here. Within weeks of the virus turning serious we had almost 100% mask wearing, hand sanitiser dispensers installed on walls everywhere you turned.

And for the last 15 years they've already been disinfecting elevator buttons, escalator railings, even mall doormats. Many/most elevator buttons will have little signs saying 'this surface is disinfected 4 times hourly' or whatever, and it's all because of how badly hit we were with SARS in 2004.

It was already the custom to wear a mask if you feel a bit ill or have a cold.

To date, Hong Kong's Covid death toll has been 7...

Hong Kong learnt a lesson from SARS and it paid off during Covid. Other countries may follow a similar pattern going forward.

No it won't effect billions. Nowhere near.

People really struggle to understand just what a billion is - for context, a million seconds is over 11 days. A billion seconds is over 31 YEARS.

How do you get from 525,000 to billions, most people will survive even experts say this. You do realise apart from monetary a million is a million million.

I understand my reaction is extreme and most people seem to be a lot calmer. But it just seems such a terrifying disease. I know the chances of dying are slim, although it's not totally predictable and I do have a couple of health factors that might affect the outcome. Then there is the issue that even if you are deemed 'recovered' you might still be left with permanent organ damage, and possibly incapacitated. And then there is the long tail version of the disease, which I have read affects 1 in 20. It involves being ill for months at least, and at this point there's no way to know how long it might go on for, or if it might even be forever.

From what I have been led to believe, in the absence of a vaccine, we can all expect to get it at some point. What is an appropriate reaction to the knowledge that there is a significant likelihood of this happening to you and loved ones?

What you need to remember is there will be many asymptomatic people who have had it and not even known they have had it, so haven't even been tested. Far more people will have it mildly than seriously.

Nope. It will eventually go back to normal. I’ve recently had an antibody test. Was positive and the only symptoms O had was a mild (think 37.9) temp for a day and feeling tired. This virus is mild for a lot of people.

For people saying it’s not normal to react like this...that is totally unfair and untrue. Of course it is! Anxiety is real and most people suffer it at some post in their lives and I think feeling unsettled during a global pandemic which has changed everything as we know it within a matter of months, is ok!

No, we will overcome this, OP.
In fact, it's probably going to be quite a minor event in human history, compared to other pandemics, wars and natural disasters.
Of course it seems horrific at the moment as we live through it, but we have the tools to control it. Firstly by protecting ourselves through simple measures, secondly through the combined efforts of the brilliant scientists throughout the world, combining their knowledge.

@Cusano34

You think it's normal to think billions will be infected by CV and "the future for the whole of humanity will likely consist of living in constant fear of this awful disease, which will gradually swallow us up". You think that's normal?

It's not. That's not normal at all.

Anxiety in a pandemic is normal. Thinking billions will be infected and the whole of humanity will have to live in fear forever is not normal. At all. Please don't suggest it is.

It's bollocks and you think you're being kind to the OP and you're not, you just didn't really read what they said and don't realise how damaging it is when you say 'oh, it's normal to feel like that'.

Two things :

Every cold started off as a pandemic ;

We live in a time when we feel in control of death, to a large extent. We see covid deaths as "avoidable deaths" therefore we endeavour to stop them.

This will pass and, hopefully, we'll learn a few lessons from the whole thing.

This is not the first pandemic we have ever had
true, but this is the first pandemic caused by a virus created in a lab
all bets are off....

It just seems to me that the future for the whole of humanity will likely consist of living in constant fear of this awful disease, which will gradually swallow us up.

A massive over-reaction.

The majority of people who get it are fine. Many have no symptoms whatsoever. Why do you think this will “swallow us up” (by which I assume you mean destroy the entire human race)?

Jesus Christ, it's not the Black Death!!! It's not even the Spanish 'flu

For most people it's a cold. A nasty cold maybe, but a cold.

If you're very old you need to take more care and I hope other countries are more sensible than we were and protect their vulnerable elderly populations.

The whole lockdown palaver has been a massive and unnecessary overreaction. Utter insanity.

Immunity? I've tested positive for covid 19 TWICE? And I had a negative test in between.

I'm sick of immunity being thrown around when you can catch it more than once.

I am extremely anxious about this so maybe my perception is skewed

Out of everything That you have written this sentence is the truest and the most accurate. I really do not think posting on this forum or reading or engaging with other peoples thoughts on the subject matter is going to be of any use to you ....if I were you I would consult the GP or some trained professional support to help with what looks like significant anxiety that is skewing your perceptions of the world

I feel for you OP, I am a nurse and been working on front line with covid patients.

I've never had anxiety in past, but I've had plenty of wobbly moments in the last few months! I think the constant media attention on worst case scenarios had been really scary! Everyone else I know in the NHS was looking at Italy and shittng themselves too

I think its so important to focus on positive things and get perspective on the risk, but obviously people telling you not to worry doesn't help anxiety! You have to change your thinking and its hard!

We are a house of 5 adults at the moment as DS and his GF are staying with us as their new build was put on hold by lockdown. Myself, DS and his GF are all NHS frontline so I felt covid was inevitable... GF had covid (confirmed test) and was mildly unwell for about a week. Myself, DH, DD and DS had no symptoms and negative swabs. I'm very much over the worrying about it now, wish I could explain how but probably just adjusted to the way things are.

I can clearly remember the fear of the HIV pandemic in the eighties. There was no cure or vaccine. Initially we didn't know much about how it was transmitted. There were rumours and misinformation
And scary iceberg posters. in 2018 770000 people died from HIV. But the rate is dropping year on year. Still no vaccine but much better treatments and ways of reducing the infection rate. We have learnt to live along side it and will learn to live alongside covid even if there is no vaccine.

The Economist is not particularly optimistic...
www.economist.com/leaders/2020/07/04/covid-19-is-here-to-stay-people-will-have-to-adapt?fsrc=newsletter&utm_campaign=the-economist-today&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=salesforce-marketing-cloud&utm_term=2020-07-03&utm_content=article-link-1
The world is not experiencing a second wave: it never got over the first. Some 10m people are known to have been infected. Pretty much everywhere has registered cases (Turkmenistan and North Korea have not, though, like Antarctica). For every country such as China, Taiwan and Vietnam, which seems to be able to contain the virus, there are more, in Latin America and South Asia, where it is raging. Others, including the United States, are at risk of losing control or, in much of Africa, in the early phase of their epidemic. Europe is somewhere in between.

The worst is to come. Based on research in 84 countries, a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reckons that, for each recorded case, 12 go unrecorded and that for every two covid-19 deaths counted, a third is misattributed to other causes. Without a medical breakthrough, it says, the total number of cases will climb to 200m-600m by spring 2021. At that point, between 1.4m and 3.7m people will have died. Even then, well over 90% of the world’s population will still be vulnerable to infection—more if immunity turns out to be transient.