Do you think the pandemic will be over by 2024?

I don’t think the pandemic will ever be ‘over’ as in gone or eradicated. Instead, if we are lucky, it will recede in severity to that of the flu.

Doubtful. Original estimates were closer to 7 years. And I’m not sure we’re exceeding expectations on vaccine plus booster usage.

Nope the anti vaxxers will make sure it will be with us for many years to come.

I don’t believe so.

Actually, yes. I think that Covid will become endemic like any other coimmon virus.

Yes. Be gone by end of 2022.

I don’t think it will ever be gone, just like cold or flu viruses will never be gone.
It will get to the point where we’ll all get the virus as a kid, and able to recover, then be immune to it as adults. Just like as adults we’re immune to the common cold viruses because we had them all as kids or young adults.

Yes. I think it winds down by the end of 2022. Covid19 will still exist, but not as lethal and so it will just be another virus floating around, killing only the most vulnerable, similar to the flu.

It will be interesting to check back to this Q in a year or two or three.

It will be not-so-lethal for people who get vaccinated and boosted. Then it will probably only suck, like having a flu.

I think it will be. It’s doing what viruses do. They get more infectious but less lethal and will essentially be one of the many common cold viruses out there. I’m already starting to be more concerned about the flu now. We have disrupted the normal flu season twice. I’m not sure what that will do but I suspect whatever flu survives this will be pretty tough considering it has not had as much chance to spread.

COVID-19 will be with us but the huge numbers of getting sick will drop by the end of 2022.

It’s possible the pandemic phase could end sometime within the next 18 months, as the rate of vaccination and/or acquired immunity increases worldwide. New cases and related deaths will eventually drop to level where public health officials and researchers will reach some consensus on the decreased scope and severity of infections.

At that point both the World Health Organization and CDC will likely coordinate a declaration, but that determination won’t be based on a single set of numbers. Instead, a range of factors will probably lead up to that decision – including what level of sickness and fatality communities can reasonably adapt to :
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2021/10/22/22737328/covid-19-pandemic-endemic

However even after the pandemic “officially” ends, the COVID 19 virus and all mutated variants will be a permanent part of our disease environment from now on. Vaccinations will continue to be recommended, just like flu shots.

Hopefully well before that, then another virus will come around?

No. It has been found in wild animals, such as white tail deer.
(Antibiotic resistant MRSA has been found in animals, too.)

My son has been treated for MRSA twice, with antibiotics, @kritiper.

I think there is a pretty good chance that we will have learned to live with the virus in its less lethal form by the summer of 2022. Covid is a worldwide problem however and unless we make a concerted effort to vaccinate the poorer countries new mutations are going to keep springing up and causing problems.

The USA has got a million new COVID-19 cases in ONE day.

https://www.npr.org/2022/01/04/1070218466/1-million-us-covid-cases-omicron-surge

@Dutchess_III: Some MRSAs are able to be treated with antibiotics and some are not.

We will be dealing with the effects of long-term COVID (“long-haulers”) for decades.
I, personally, have been chair-bound and dependent on others since getting my booster. No regrets, just another public health issue to be addressed.

@Cupcake Care to share the details of that story? Personally the booster kicked my butt for about three days but I’m fine now.

I didn’t fel anything after my booster.

I had 99F temp and my heart rate was 90 bpm minimum for a day. Then my zombie conversion was completed.

@Blackwater_Park It’s been over a month. I have pain from head to toe in my joints and muscles. I get a headache and dizziness when I stand up and my heart rate jumps up way high. I am exhausted all day long. I have brain fog and difficulty forming words and sentences. If I exert myself at all (even a shower, or brushing my hair, something minor), I will have especially bad pain and fatigue (post-exertional malaise). The longer I stand, the more my legs throb and burn and my head hurts and my heart rate stays elevated, so I remain in a chair for almost all day. I take 700–800 steps in a day, on average (which is probably an over-estimate as it is measured on my wrist). I sit in the shower. I cannot cook or wash dishes or help clean. I cannot help take care of my children. I still technically work full-time, but I really only do a few hours of work in a day and it is not at the quality that it was a month ago. My fingers throb and hurt so bad I cannot open packages (like food) or hold a plate or cut my own food.

Early on (a few weeks ago), I took my kids two blocks away to the park and sat while they played. Then we went home and I sat down in a chair. A couple of hours later when I tried to stand up, my whole body was throbbing and hot with pain. I limped into the kitchen for a snack and water and could barely drag myself back to the chair, where I remained for the rest of the day. The next day I could barely stand up out of bed. My pain and fatigue were elevated for a day and a half (to the point that I couldn’t do anything).. just for walking 4 blocks. I have a number of similar, but much smaller examples.

To be clear, I have my PhD (which I completed as a parent of three and during a global pandemic) and have successfully obtained my own funding and published several manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals. I am highly capable and motivated. And right now, it takes all of my energy to not fall into a complete pit of despair and depression. My life is impacted in every way possible and I may not be able to work a job that utilizes my education, experience and skills. I am devastated. And there are many others like me.

@Blackwater_Park The booster also kicked my butt for three days, in the usual ways. But I never got better – my symptoms just changed from those that you would expect to these that I described above.

@Cupcake That’s pretty devastating. I’m so sorry. I assume you spoke to your doctor about this? You’re the first I have heard of with these symptoms. Sounds like you need to see a rheumatologist also.

I agree. You need to see a doctor @Cupcake.

@Dutchess_III Yes, some MRSA can be treated wit antibiotics. But the time will come when no antibiotic will work.

@Blackwater_Park and @Dutchess_III I’ve seen my doctor and gotten bloodwork and am being referred to a chronic fatigue clinic in a few weeks. They are getting more and more covid-related cases.

I really wish it will be over by then or hopefully before.

However I am afraid this virus is here to stay, for many years yet, unless the scientists can come up with a vaccine that will kill the virus or prevent people from catching it.

In my opinion I am afraid that this virus is like an even worse version of the flu and we know that we cannot stop this because like Covid the flu is constantly mutating.

I truly hope I am wrong though.

Covid mutates, drifts, slower than the flu. This current variant, Omicron, is apparently less lethal than Alpha and Delta. Smart viruses like to be less lethal and more contagious, it means the virus can be around longer. Health officials, the government, won’t be overly concerned about a virus that does flood medical facilities and isn’t killing many people.

@JLeslie The medical facilities are getting flooded, though. Ours certainly is.

Our local medical center is swamped 15 out the 16 ICU beds are occupied.

99 out 180 of the rest of the beds are occupied.

@Caravanfan Oh, I didn’t mean it’s the end now. On another Q I said I’m hoping a year from now is the last big wave that causes high hospitalizations. Either enough immunity in the population or a much less deadly variant. I’m just hoping and guessing, but yeah, not yet, not now.

Thanks for letting me clarify.

Plus, I see I had a typo. It should be …the government won’t be concerned if the virus DOESN’T flood hospitals… but it obviously is concerned since it’s still making a lot of people very sick and abusing our healthcare workers.

Anti-vax dumbasses are abusing our healthcare workers too.

@RocketGuy Yes, they are. Although, the very elderly or people with very weakened immune systems are still the most vulnerable whether vaccinated or not. A few months ago we (a woman that lives where I live) looked over the statistics and an 80 year old vaccinated person had more chances of dying than an unvaccinated person under 50. Hopefully, the booster helped with that, and the 50–80 year olds hopefully post booster are much better protected. It’s looking that way.

Our hospitalization rate here was much higher than the national average for vaccinated in the summer surge, hopefully the booster helped. I don’t know the statistics in this wave. Now, I have a contact in the county health department who might be able to get me those statistics more readily.