Is it possible that COVID may not ever shift from being pandemic to endemic?

[Hardkill]

https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-science-health-pandemics-dc99bc9f769dd6d7cb669e3d185c6261

Edited January 16, 2022 by Hardkill

[Preety_India]

Covid is just a flu. But flu can take lives. 

In fact Flus have taken lives, many lives. 

Covid is already endemic. You'll need booster doses to deal with variants. 

The difference between Covid and flu is that a SARS like flu can be very dangerous and stubborn. 

Regular flu is no less painful. I'm still suffering from a flu and it takes a heavy toll on health. 

 

[Tim R]

2 minutes ago, Preety_India said:

Covid is just a flu

It's not "just a flu". The lethality of Covid is I think 21 or 22 time higher than of the regular flu... 

[Preety_India]

@Tim R it is still a type of flu although lethal. 

 

[Tim R]

@Preety_India What do you mean by "flu"? Influenza? They're not even the same virus family, they only share the same kingom which is waaay up there in the phylogenetic tree, they're not that closely related. 

In terms of symptoms (for mostly young people), you're right, they are similar. 

[Preety_India]

3 minutes ago, Tim R said:

@Preety_India What do you mean by "flu"? Influenza? They're not even the same virus family, they only share the same kingom which is waaay up there in the phylogenetic tree, they're not that closely related. 

In terms of symptoms (for mostly young people), you're right, they are similar. 

I meant in terms of symptoms. 

I know it's not influenza. 

 

[Hardkill]

I am not so sure anymore if we will ever get back to living full normal lives including having zero lockdowns, no more school closings, no longer needing to wear a mask again, totally normal employment, go to big events, going back to having 100% normal social and dating lives, etc.

Am I being too pessismistic?

Edited January 16, 2022 by Hardkill

[Preety_India]

30 minutes ago, Hardkill said:

I am not so sure anymore if we will ever get back to living full normal lives including having zero lockdowns, no more school closings, no longer needing to wear a mask again, totally normal employment, go to big events, going back to having 100% normal social and dating lives, etc.

Am I being too pessismistic?

It will happen in 3 months. Don't worry. I don't think this will last long. I most probably think Omicron is the last variant. 

There is no disease in human history that lasted forever. 

 

[Hardkill]

Just now, Preety_India said:

It will happen in 3 months. Don't worry. I don't think this will last long. I most probably think Omicron is the last variant. 

There is no disease in human history that lasted forever. 

 

Well....I pray that you're right?

[Phil King]

51 minutes ago, Hardkill said:

I am not so sure anymore if we will ever get back to living full normal lives including having zero lockdowns, no more school closings, no longer needing to wear a mask again, totally normal employment, go to big events, going back to having 100% normal social and dating lives, etc.

Am I being too pessismistic?

Covid definitely changed things and how the world will operate in the future, but you definitely are being too pessimistic to say that life will never return to, or be "as good as" before the pandemic. I think in the coming year or 2, people will either fall into two groups. The IDGAF, its basically just a flu group, and the people who want to play out their victim fantasy and act like this illness will wipe out the planet.

[Hardkill]

47 minutes ago, Phil King said:

Covid definitely changed things and how the world will operate in the future, but you definitely are being too pessimistic to say that life will never return to, or be "as good as" before the pandemic. I think in the coming year or 2, people will either fall into two groups. The IDGAF, its basically just a flu group, and the people who want to play out their victim fantasy and act like this illness will wipe out the planet.

But what about the rise of new variants like Pi, then Rho, then Sigma, then Tau, then Epsilon, then Phi, then Psi, then Omega, and so on and so on? 

In that article I just posted up on the very top of this thread, the top medical scientists are not only saying that we should expect to have even more worrisome variants in the future but that also there’s no guarantee that the new future variants will be as mild as omicron. The more the virus spreads the more mutations will arise. 

[Phil King]

There are like a thousand variants of the flu and it mutates all throughout the year. This why people get yearly flu shots. I think that as more and more variants get discovered, people will just accept covid as a slightly more dangerous flu and get yearly covid shots along with flu shots to keep up with latest variants. 

Also obviously Im not a scientist or biologist, but it seems that every new variant of covid gets more infective, yet less lethal, so I doubt that a variant that has severe lethality to a large portion of the population would come from covid. 

 

[Hardkill]

7 minutes ago, Phil King said:

There are like a thousand variants of the flu and it mutates all throughout the year. This why people get yearly flu shots. I think that as more and more variants get discovered, people will just accept covid as a slightly more dangerous flu and get yearly covid shots along with flu shots to keep up with latest variants. 

Also obviously Im not a scientist or biologist, but it seems that every new variant of covid gets more infective, yet less lethal, so I doubt that a variant that has severe lethality to a large portion of the population would come from covid. 

 

I hope you’re right 

[Ananta]

No way this is going away soon, imo. This was just published for my state:

"In the last 24 hours, 41,455 COVID cases, 472 hospitalizations, 36 intensive care unit admissions and 487 deaths were reported to the state health department. "

...and that's the positive cases they can confirm. Tons of ppl are testing at home with home test kits and quarentining without notifying anyone.

From the CDC: "Influenza (flu) and COVID-19 are both contagious respiratory illnesses, but they are caused by different viruses. COVID-19 is caused by infection with a coronavirus first identified in 2019, and flu is caused by infection with influenza viruses."

[Windappreciator]

possible

[w4read]

It's already entering the endemic phase certain places. South Africa is basically back to normal, and UK seems to have past the peak in number of cases. This will be over pretty soon I believe.

[mrPixel]

On 1/16/2022 at 5:46 AM, w4read said:

It's already entering the endemic phase certain places. South Africa is basically back to normal, and UK seems to have past the peak in number of cases. This will be over pretty soon I believe.

We are never going back to normal. We'll just adapt and learn to cope. This is a transformational time in our history.

[puporing]

Wonder if this forum has gotten more traffic since Covid.