How do you think coronavirus will play out?

[zippyswife]

Just wondered what predictions are long term- I'm talking a year- five years maybe?

Do you think we'll be returning back to normal after mass vaccination programme or that new variants will scupper all that and well be in and out of lockdown with perhaps the worst variants yet to come?

Just wondering as I've been pretty optimistic until recently but after a week of WFH and homeschooling 3 primary aged dcs I'm starting to feel deflated and wondering what the future holds.

I think it will drag on for a really fucking long time. Far, far longer than anyone though back in March 2020. I think new variants will keep popping up and it will be like playing whack-a-mole trying to contain them.
I think other events will eventually end up eclipsing the pandemic, either another pandemic (please God no) or more likely, climate related natural catastrophe which takes the focus off Covid before it's fizzled out.

I obviously really want to be wrong about all of this and would love to be done and dusted with this bullshit by summer.

I am trying to only focus one month at a time. But with the pressure on from homeschooling and the misery of not seeing people or going out... it’s bloody hard.

I think it’s quite straightforward. We will vaccinate the people most likely to clog up the hospitals if they become ill, which may have to be an annual vaccination like ‘flu. After we’ve made sure the hospitals won’t become overwhelmed, Covid will just be a relatively mild disease which we live with, which affects most people mildly - just like ‘flu.

People seem to have lost sight of what lockdown is about. It isn’t about preventing every single death. Many elderly and ill people die of ‘flu each year, and we accept that this is just the way things are. Once hospitals are able to cope, we’ll just accept that some Covid deaths are inevitable and get on with things.

Humans don’t like change, we’re creatures of habit. As much as it may seem at the moment that life will never be the same again, most of us will be straight back to our normal lives the second it’s sanctioned.

@ComtesseDeSpair

I think it’s quite straightforward. We will vaccinate the people most likely to clog up the hospitals if they become ill, which may have to be an annual vaccination like ‘flu. After we’ve made sure the hospitals won’t become overwhelmed, Covid will just be a relatively mild disease which we live with, which affects most people mildly - just like ‘flu.

People seem to have lost sight of what lockdown is about. It isn’t about preventing every single death. Many elderly and ill people die of ‘flu each year, and we accept that this is just the way things are. Once hospitals are able to cope, we’ll just accept that some Covid deaths are inevitable and get on with things.

Humans don’t like change, we’re creatures of habit. As much as it may seem at the moment that life will never be the same again, most of us will be straight back to our normal lives the second it’s sanctioned.

This.

@ComtesseDeSpair

I think it’s quite straightforward. We will vaccinate the people most likely to clog up the hospitals if they become ill, which may have to be an annual vaccination like ‘flu. After we’ve made sure the hospitals won’t become overwhelmed, Covid will just be a relatively mild disease which we live with, which affects most people mildly - just like ‘flu.

People seem to have lost sight of what lockdown is about. It isn’t about preventing every single death. Many elderly and ill people die of ‘flu each year, and we accept that this is just the way things are. Once hospitals are able to cope, we’ll just accept that some Covid deaths are inevitable and get on with things.

Humans don’t like change, we’re creatures of habit. As much as it may seem at the moment that life will never be the same again, most of us will be straight back to our normal lives the second it’s sanctioned.

This

As above

No idea.

But when I get worried about it I ask Alexa to play Steps, what the future holds.

Have a good dance and it brightens me up!!!

I think there will be only sporadic outbreaks from time to time, because most people will be vaccinated. I don’t believe annual vaccination will be needed, because it doesn’t mutate anything like as quickly as flu.

Outbreaks can be controlled by aggressive contact tracing/isolation and a revaccination campaign if it appears there has been “vaccine escape” due to mutation. They say they can tweak the vaccines fairly quickly.

Much like the flu, they can include vaccines against several strains in the same shot.

Humans don’t like change, we’re creatures of habit. As much as it may seem at the moment that life will never be the same again, most of us will be straight back to our normal lives the second it’s sanctioned.

Absolutely this.

For every person on MN who's 'enjoying the slower pace of life' and 'welcoming the opportunity to focus on what's really important', there are 100 - at least - who are desperate to get their old lives back. Even the tedious and annoying aspects.

Just as our lives from barely a year ago now seem like a dream, so too this period will seem like a nightmare in the not too distant future. In the longer scheme of things, this will be a blip.

Jab, jabs, jabs. Government misses target slightly and people insist we are the laughing stock of the world. Deaths start to drop and pressure on the NHS drops.

Teachers will muscle their way in to vaccinations before group six and nobody will say anything because they are all sick of homeschooling. People will complain because they can't resume hugging their friends - because deaths are going down - but ignoring that the vulnerable are still at risk.

Easter: People act surprised that people are still dying. We'll get the Moderna vaccine and we'll have another round of tin foil hattery. Someone will have missed their second round of the vaccine and people will insist we are the laughing stock of the world. Kids go back to school.

Vaccinations will be running at full tilt by now but people will take it for granted. All the priority groups will be done. Vaccines will have rolled down to the phase 2, healthy adults. Vaccine hesitancy will become more of an issue.

By the end of summer all those who want a vaccine will have had their first vaccine. All of the unused orders that we never used will be assessed. People will insist this was financial incompetence and that we are the laughing stock of the world.

By autumn, new mutations will crop up and we will all quietly shit ourselves that the vaccine won't be enough. We'll wear masks and move back to social distancing. It'll be fine. This will happen ever winter. Booster shots after two years.

Five years from now we'll still be unravelling the cascade of unintended consequences from lockdowns but our focus will be on global warming.

Something

I really think there is light at the end. Once the vaccines have been given to the most people, life will get back to normal.

Two years maximum. We are almost a year since the beginning of it so one more year.

Once there are enough vaccines to make them available privately and open to all. The NHS will not have the pressure anymore.

Just remember when the vaccine was impossible to get soon. 10 months later here they are.

I think in a couple of years Covid will be treated like flu - but maybe more people getting vaccinated each year.

By Summer 2021 life will almost be back to normal but some restrictions come back in winter 2021. But once every adult who wants one has been vaccinated then life will return to normal.