The sooner we recognize that the coronavirus is here to stay, the better off we’ll be.
Experts in epidemiology, disaster planning, and vaccine development have some advice for you: accept the fact that the coronavirus could be with us for decades to come. Embracing that reality “is crucial to the next phase of America’s pandemic response,” according to a May 27 article in The Washington Post.
Experts believe the coronavirus will continue circulating continuously, even after a vaccine is developed. The virus’ effects will eventually grow milder as immunity spreads and our bodies adapt to it over time.
“For now, though, most people have not been infected and remain susceptible,” write Post reporters William Wan and Carolyn Y. Johnson. “Left alone, experts say, it will simply keep burning through the world’s population.”
Combating endemic diseases like the coronavirus requires long-range thinking, sustained effort and international coordination, write Wan and Johnson.
“Everything we’re doing is just a knee-jerk response to the short-term,” Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the reporters. “We need a comprehensive battle strategy, meticulously implemented.”
What America is missing is a sense of urgency, the experts say. We’re not learning lessons. We’re not doing anything different to prepare for the next wave of infections. We’re not devising long-term strategies for:
- Building design, like installing doors that don’t require grasping a handle, and replacing open-floor office plans with cubicles.
- Personal safety, like urging families to make diagnostic tests routine ahead of visits to grandparents.
- Sick leave, like offering paid sick leave for jobs of all types, and changing the mindset that working sick is an “act of admirable American can-do spirit.”
- Testing, like implementing more sophisticated testing strategies that could increase our ability to detect surges in the virus more quickly.
- State policy, like crafting quick-response systems and protocols at the state level and collecting valuable data on what will work against the virus in coming years.
“Increasingly, leading experts believe many Americans won’t make the shift toward long-range thinking until the virus spreads more widely and affects someone they know,” write Wan and Johnson.