If Covid is here to stay, or a vaccine is not found.....

[Stinkyguineapig]

I guess no one actually will have a definite answer but...
Suppose we dont have a vaccine and covid is "just" another virus that circulates in the community as a long term thing, would it always be the case for years, that you have to isolate for 14 days if someone in your household has it, or you've been in close contact with someone who has it...?

In "normal" times, most winters there are various outbreaks of norovirus, sometimes half my DC class seem to be off with it.....but there is no requirement for anyone except the sufferer to isolate...until 48 hours after symptoms have gone (With young children often a parent would by default as they couldnt be left in their own)

I hope that things will "go back to normal" at some stage,(maybe in the next year?) eg concerts, sports events, being able to have large parties/weddings etc.....but if cv19 is still around in say 5 years, could you have the case that everyone attending a wedding, for example, had to isolate if the mother of the bride was found to have a positive covid test a few days afterwards?
Or if one of your work colleagues tested positive would the workplace have to close....?
Surely a lot of people wouldnt be able to afford to do that?

@TheDailyCarbuncle

Eventually governments will slowly stop talking about coronavirus, stop focusing on infection and testing statistics and various things will be dropped - including, potentially, any talk about a virus. Restrictions will be quietly taken away and when questions are asked there'll be vague answers about the need to move forward and how health systems can cope etc. In a couple of years this will seem like a weird dream and everyone will look back and think 'did that really happen?'

Coronavirus is a virus like the many many other viruses out there. It made sense to take extreme measures when nothing much was known about it but they have to stop at some point because it turns out that death caused by lockdowns and restrictions are just as fatal as deaths from coronvirus (who knew?).Governments can't back down right now - it'll look too bad - but eventually they will have to. Coronvirus will be just another thing people get. Most people will be fine, some people will die, some will suffer long term effects, just like every other virus out there.

I really wish the stupid term 'long covid' would fuck the fuck off.

What makes you think this?

I think we will find a vaccine but in the UK the general population won’t receive it until middle of next year and it will take another year beyond that before we stop wearing masks and want to go on a plane again. But if the hospitalisation stay low and the death rate stays low too then people will realise that while it’s not a nice experience, COVID is not worth totally wrecking our economy and metal health for.