GOD WILLING, we shall see this virus brought under control by a vaccine and therapeutics. We do our best to protect ourselves until then but it is futility to think we can hide from the virus. Edgar Allan Poe.
I personally think it's a lot more likely that the virus will simply rage on until it burns itself out, and subsides, much the way the Ebola flare-ups in West Africa a few years ago. The thing got started, went absolutely bananas for about a year, then it just.....slacked off, and disappeared.
Why? Nobody knows. But it happens all the time. Look at your standard head cold: you get infected, it goes nuts, you sneeze, cough, your nose runs, your lungs hurt, you ache, you lose your sense of taste, and every day you feel worse. Until, one day, you feel a little better, and each day that goes by, the symptoms lessen, until eventually it just.....stops.
Why doesn't the URI continue to gain strength until it eventually kills the host? Nobody knows. Science has no answers on this. For some reason, viruses get started, they go crazy for a while, and then they just......stop.
I can almost guarantee that's what will happen with Covid-19. No vaccine will be developed before the thing just fades away and disappears on its own, and it'll go down in the record books as being another example, like the Hong Kong flu outbreak of 1968. (shrug)
I do agree with you, however, that we can't hide from this virus. Virus particles are so miniscule that they can penetrate any tiny gap in those silly masks that everybody is so passionate about. The only purpose those masks serve is to give their wearers a feeling of noble superiority and righteousness, or a false sense of comfort and protection that really isn't there. But they don't stop the virus. Slow it down? Maybe. But it still won't stop it, and when the mask comes off, the virus will still be there. And it will remain there until the virus runs its course, however long that may be. But I personally think that its nonsensical to hide in your basement until you think that its safe to come up to the surface.
But then, I'm kind of fatalistic with these things. When you join the military, you are fully aware that if your career field involves exposure to enemy fire (and mine did----I was a combat engineer), then you may very well end up getting killed. Its the chance you take every morning, and it may be more likely to happen to you than a civilian getting killed when an airliner falls out of the sky on top of his head, but really, continued life is not a guarantee for any of us. Best just to accept it, prepare as best you can for your demise, and go on and do your life. I'd rather do that than hide in a fallout shelter, wearing a space suit and cowering and worrying that the virus might "get me". If it does, it does. Eh.
I remember talking with some people once, many years ago, about the possibility of nuclear war. I was the only veteran. They all agreed that if the word was given that the missiles were on their way, they'd be seeking shelter immediately. I smiled and said, "Well, if I ever hear that the missiles are coming, I'm going to go make myself a couple of ham sandwiches, grab a beer, and go sit on my roof and see if I can spot one as it's coming down." They all looked at me like I had two heads, and somebody said, "But how would you survive if you do that?", and I said, "I won't. That's the point. Do you have the slightest concept of what life would be like in the aftermath of a large-scale nuclear strike? If one comes,
I don't want to survive it. There are worse things than dying, folks, trust me."
