COVID 19 and the long haul

I think a lot of people and governments out there are missing a major point.  We need to be in this for the long haul.

The best case scenario is that we find a batch of drugs that will either treat or slow down the rate of transmittal of the disease.  A preventative vaccine is at best 14 months away.

Avoiding large gatherings, being hygienic will do a lot to slow down the spread of the disease, but nothing we can do outside of total isolation from all human contact will stop it.

Countries around the world have closed their borders, all of which is too late to stop the spread, though it will slow it down.  What will slow it down even further is stopping all social travel.

Our efforts to self quarantine will help, the closing of schools bars and restaurants will help.

But nothing will stop it until a vaccine is made, tested, distributed and that will take at least another 16 months.

If we are lucky.

Because if the vaccine currently under testing passes all the safety protocols, it will still take a minimum of time for it to be mass produced and distributed.

And that is also assuming that the disease does not develop multiple strains, ones that are different enough to be immune to the test vaccine.

So, my advice at this time is settle in for the long haul.

Write down a list of friends you like to visit and strongly encourage them to use a video chat method of keeping in touch.

If you have lost employment or income due to a 'temporary' closing of business, start looking for alternate work as soon as you can, because that closing could last well over a year, and two years is not out of the picture.

One of the technology advances I see coming soon, is a debit/credit card machine with a viral resistant key pad, and if that works, a vast increase in the number of transactions people do cashless.

As much as I like cash and hard currency, it is also a vector for the transmission of disease, and in Canada where a lot of debit transactions take place, it could help to slow down the spread by a bit.

Could be an interesting study to undertake to see if that does make a difference, or if I am just going on wishful thinking

All for now.