With the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19, many people are wondering if we are ever going to return to a normal way of life. The short answer is no.
COVID-19, or coronavirus, was first discovered on December 31, 2019. In the subsequent month’s the virus spread to surrounding nations which led to it being officially labeled a global pandemic and nationwide lockdowns in the United States in mid-March. As of November 11, 2020, there are just under 55 million confirmed cases, and 1.3 million deaths globally. It has been almost 9 months since the COVID-19 lockdown was officially started, and with no end in sight, it seems that we are never going to return to a normal life like the ones we lived a year ago.
It’s important to look towards the future to try and figure out if there is any hope. The honest truth is our future is looking grim. There is no end in sight for a number of reasons. Firstly, this virus won’t just go away. There will always be new cases and every attempt that we make at reopening will just lead to another wave of new cases. A vaccine isn’t the be-all-end-all either. Doctors are concerned about our actual ability to vaccinate, as many believe that these immunities will only last a few months. The other concern is that COVID will mutate, and could even become more deadly.
We aren’t able to vaccinate for the virus for a number of reasons. Kelly Mallett, a nurse at West Hills Hospital in Los Angeles stated,
“The hope is that this does give some immunity but unfortunately even the immunity now that we're seeing only is lasting three to four months. So is this going to only protect us for this strain for this amount of months, versus is it going to continue working into our future. Unfortunately viruses, they morph, they change so we're going to have to keep coming up with new vaccines for this.”
Other doctors, like Anthony Fauci, an American physician, said that vaccines will not be a permanent solution according to Healthline. Other doctors also say that in order to return to normal life, we need to employ a multitude of solutions that include vaccines and treatments to quell the spread of the virus and hopefully make the world have some sort of resemblance to normalcy.
"Barbra Streisand with Francis Collins and Anthony Fauci" by National Institutes of Health (NIH) is marked with CC PDM 1.0
We can’t rely on a vaccine as our only solution. We are going to have to adapt to a new way of living that supports protecting and mitigating the dangers of COVID, but also allowing people to go to work, see family, and just enjoy life. This isn’t likely to happen any time soon, however. Mallett goes on to say,
“We're going to continue this well into 2021, especially with this flu season coming up. It's going to be hard to decipher sometimes if it's flu versus or COVID. And we're gonna have a lot of hospitalizations again. So no, I don't believe it's going to change anytime soon.”
Doctors and nurses aren’t able to tell the future, but they are confident that COVID-19 does not have any solutions around the corner, and that we are going to have to adapt to this new norm until we can figure something out.
The line between safety and business is also blurred. While we are looking for a cure, we are also looking for temporary solutions to protect our economy. There is a fine line between business and safety, and politicians, business owners, and doctors are all trying to find ways to protect each other while also keeping their livelihoods intact. Local business owner Michael Moore went on the record saying that,
We are now faced with finding a solution that will mitigate the toll of the virus, but also allow for people, and our economy, to thrive. This is the thin line that we are balancing on right now. According to USA Today, states like Texas have little to no restriction, but California is a polar opposite, with state wide mask mandates dating back as far as June, and a ban on indoor dining in most of the counties in California, as well as other mandates on education and entertainment. A more middle ground state would be Arizona, where mask wearing is urged, but not mandated.
So what does the future look like? Well we don’t know, but scientists have a good idea. According to Nature, we are actually seeing the individual practices of people slowing the spread of this virus, as more people are making changes like wearing masks and hand washing. Once we start to come off of the first wave, we have to monitor active cases, and constantly test. Any new cases that are found must be isolated in order to prevent the spread. Many companies, like Google, have already started developing “digital contact tracing” in order to track the spread of the virus, well, digitally. It will identify anyone you come in close contact with and if they test positive you will be alerted.
Many people choose to counter COVID, saying that the economic risk is worse than the death toll that COVID creates. These people aren’t wrong, but their solutions are. President Donald Trump has been quoted saying that,
“The cure cannot be worse than the problem itself.”
He is right, being on perpetual lockdowns, shutting down business, and devastating our economy, in the long run, is worse than COVID, but we can’t also curt back all precautionary measures. Many people say that we should just return back to normal, that people die all the time. What makes this mentality dangerous is it implies that there is an intrinsic economic value on someone's life. We should be focusing on solutions while maintaining safety. We can’t live in our houses forever, but we can’t completely reopen the economy and reintroduce the clear danger that COVID presents to people.
"Donald Trump" by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
The reality of the situation is, Covid will probably end up being like our current day influenza virus. We will likely have to vaccinate for it either seasonally, annually, or even every other year. The obvious hope would be that this vaccine gives us permanent antibodies, and as soon as we have access to it we will rid ourselves of this virus, but that’s not likely. So the future of Covid looks like the world now. We are going to have to monitor our own personal health, wear masks, and start to adapt to this new normal.
Sources: