Answers to the virus pandemic are complicated.
Life in America has been turned upside down by the coronavirus pandemic, leaving people isolated in their homes while others lose jobs as businesses close. The stock market fluctuations are more like they are in a bouncy house than on a roller coaster. And everyone wants to know: When will it all be over? When will life get back to normal?
Experts disagree. But all are in agreement that the answers are complicated.
In a worse-case scenario, hospital beds across the U.S. could be full by next week, and as many as 2.2 million Americans could die of the virus, according to a study from the Imperial College, London. They say Americans should not expect life to be back to normal by Easter. Exposure and positive test results should be expected to increase across the next couple of weeks, and data does not seem to be “flattening out” the curve, nor will it for weeks ahead.
In a better case, there is the chance the virus could become less contagious in the summer months, much like the flue in the Northern Hemisphere. A public health professor at the University of California said outdoor activities with small numbers of people would likely be fine and bars and restaurants might reopen in the coming weeks, but there probably won’t be major league baseball or crowded beaches. He said he is looking for the possibility that life could return to normal across the summer months.
But it is possible the bulk of social distancing could be over within a month or two, according to an epidemiology professor at Harvard.
“Right now, if everybody complies [with social distancing] measures, we’re looking at a two-month window, three months at a minimum,” Lilian Alessa of the University of Idaho, agreed.
The truth is no one knows how the virus will behave in the coming months and with more than a year to wait for a vaccine, social distancing may be the best thing Americans can do until health professionals understand better.
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- That President Trump and his task force would heed the advice of experts from many fields in their determination to get Americans back to work.
- For health experts across the country as each studies the pandemic from his or her own level of specialty.
- For Americans who are suffering from the coronavirus, and for the health care workers who are attending to them.
- For Americans who are isolated in their homes, feeling “stir-crazy,” to continue to follow government guidelines for their protection and that of others.
- For families who have lost loved ones due to complications brought on by the virus.
Sources: The Atlantic, Fox News
