DETROIT – We know everyone has questions and concerns regarding the coronavirus. Local 4′s Dr. Frank McGeorge has been working diligently to answer them.
There is one particular question that continues to resurface about when the coronavirus pandemic will be over.
While there is no telling when the pandemic will be over, there are a few things to help frame the future.
There really are not many previous situations one can use to compare outside of prior influenza pandemics. If COVID-19 follows those patterns everyone should be prepared for the long game and not just the single episode we are currently weathering.
Some prior flu pandemics did stop after several months, but there have also been flu pandemics that followed a pattern of decreasing after a few months only to resurge in a cyclical pattern that continued over two years.
If that happens with COVID-19 with each recurrent wave there will be additional cases and deaths until we either develop herd immunity or a vaccine becomes available.
The SARS-COV-2 virus has been found to have a number of troubling characteristics that allow it to spread easily.
It can spread in the air and through surfaces. Also, it takes several days before someone has symptoms and they can spread the virus before even knowing they are infected.
Hopefully, if there are future resurgences, we are able to manage them without shutting down our society. We need to be prepared to reduce spread by limiting unnecessary contacts, practicing good hand hygiene, and wearing masks if necessary.
No one knows for sure what will happen after we make it through the current outbreak, but the bottom line is that we should be mentally prepared for resurgences.
But if we adjust our behaviors there is a good chance we can blunt the severity and minimize future spread.
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