The coronavirus pandemic continues: cases are increasing faster than medical facilities can accommodate them, lines for testing are miles long, deaths are mounting, and the virus has hit almost every country on the globe. We are deep in the second wave, and—at the time I’m writing this (11/15/2020)—it’s obvious the numbers will only increase, at least for the foreseeable future. The one bright spot is that vaccines are coming, possibly early next year, and it will be essential that as many people as possible take the vaccine. I’ve already stated my willingness to take a vaccine if one is available that has been shown to be safe and effective. It’s beginning to look as though vaccines will become available just about the time the second wave is beginning to taper off (assuming we continue to do all the social behaviors we’ve been doing for the last eight months or so [masks, social distancing, hand washing, etc.]). But, even if that’s true, it will still be necessary to take the vaccine because cases and deaths will still be high, and the best way to reduce those numbers will be to take a vaccine, rather than allow more people to become infected. We can approach herd immunity, and we can defeat the virus, but it will take a coordinated effort from all of us. The virus will probably become endemic in the population (see my previous blog posts), and everyone will almost certainly have to get a coronavirus vaccine every year, in the same way we get a flu vaccine every year. (Hopefully, the coronavirus won’t be as changeable as the flu virus). I even predict a combined flu/coronavirus vaccine eventually. No doubt it will be called “Flu/Cor.” One shot, and away you go. I suspect having taken the coronavirus vaccine will eventually become a requirement for all school children.
What about re-opening the economy? Will we be able to get back to going out without having to worry about contagion? I suspect we will. (I’m looking forward to that myself.) Children will be able to go back to school, meetings will be held, groups will accumulate, concerts will take place, churches and other houses of worship will re-open, and the world will seem normal again. Masks will drop and families will get together. That, at least, is possible. Cases of coronavirus will still occur, especially in the autumn when the weather turns cooler and we congregate inside more often, and children go back to school. Since the virus is transmitted through the respiratory system, I expect it to act more like influenza in the long run.
The one major change I hope will remain in effect permanently is the elimination of handshaking. That—in my opinion—is a disgusting habit that should have gone the way of the Dodo bird a long time ago. It is probably one of the most common ways of transmitting germs of all sorts. (I’m not sure if any studies have been done on how well handshaking passes viruses or bacteria, but eliminating it can only be good.)
I lack the economic and political expertise to estimate how things will change in those social realms, though I suspect they will be robust, but I can foresee the end of the pandemic at a cost of an increase in cases in the fall. Get your vaccine.