Will the Covid-19 Pandemic Ever Truly End?

[waternohitter]

Though the Covid-19 pandemic is far from over, countries around the world are beginning to consider steps to ease their lockdown restrictions. With a return to some form of normality insight, do you guys think we will go back to our normal lifestyle?

 

[fresh_42]

Though the Covid-19 pandemic is far from over, countries around the world are beginning to consider steps to ease their lockdown restrictions.

This is not true in this generality. Some are preparing total lockdowns, many have partial lockdowns. So where are those "countries around the world"?

With a return to some form of normality insight, do you guys think we will go back to our normal lifestyle?

No. Back to normal is currently equivalent to accept more fatalities, and a lot of seriously sick individuals, many of them long term. This is not an option for many countries.

 

[Choppy]

I think we're likely to see an oscillatory behavior with restrictions for the foreseeable future. By that I mean that we're likely to continue to see reactionary (and hopefully some preemptive) responses to local trends. As cases rise, social restrictions will be increased to prevent the overwhelming of healthcare systems and catastrophic mortality rates. As they ebb, the restrictions will be loosened in response to pressures to keep economies going, and stave of many of the other consequences of social isolation.

But even in scenarios where the case numbers go down, returning to a pre-COVID normal is a long way off. In the past two weeks there have been some hopeful press-releases on the vaccine front. But as the saying goes, you can't do science by press-release. Even if an effective vaccine is cleared for use sometime over the winter, there's a logistic challenge to distribution. And that's not to mention convincing the majority of the population to take it (and likely take it multiple times). I suspect that once the vaccine comes out we're likely to continue to see months of continued social restrictions as the vaccine takes effect. In time COVID will become more compartmentalized. We'll be less likely to see large-scale lock downs and slowly travel will open up again. But it's unlikely COVID will completely vanish any time soon.

 

[jack action]

Since the beginning, my money is on that pandemic restrictions will be over somewhere between Christmas (assuming it will be canceled) and the first sunny days of spring (in the northern hemisphere, that is). At that point, people will have already lost too much that a "potentially getting Covid" will be more acceptable than "loosing something with certainty" (economically, psychologically, etc.)

Vaccine or not, Covid is not going away but people's patience will. You cannot live under fear forever. At one point, if nothing bad happens around you, you don't throw away your life for some hypothetical outcomes. Or if they happen anyway despite your best efforts.

Once there will be one nation who will be fed up (the people, not the government) and quit, it will have a snowball effect on all others and no governments will be able to stop it. Never underestimate the human factor.

If the experts were right and a hecatomb does happen afterward, the restrictions will come back on their own, but this time they will be self-imposed by each individual, based on facts and not pessimistic statistical models; the way it should have been all along.

Just my 2¢.

 

[hutchphd]

Vaccine or not, Covid is not going away but people's patience will. You cannot live under fear forever. At one point, if nothing bad happens around you, you don't throw away your life for some hypothetical outcomes.

You clearly were not alive in the time of the polio (early 1950's in USA). A confluence of sociological factors created a populace largely lacking immunity and the results were devastating. Children were not allowed out when polio was about. Hypothetical paralysis.
A concerted rational effort was mounted and **it got done.
Polio went away because of relentless hard work by medical and public health professionals and scientists and educators. That is what will happen with COVID-19. The power of concerted human effort to surmount obstacles is formidable, even if "you can't fix stupid".
I could also mention smallpox but that would be piling on.

 

[Evo]

Though the Covid-19 pandemic is far from over, countries around the world are beginning to consider steps to ease their lockdown restrictions. With a return to some form of normality insight, do you guys think we will go back to our normal lifestyle?

No, I don't see any return to "normalcy" in sight, nor have I seen any sources to back your claims . Please PM me your sources, if legitimate, I will re-open this thread.