I think I know how the pandemic will end… and it’s not pretty.
A while ago I read a paper about how outbreaks end in animal populations.
It involved the population density becoming so low, that disease could no longer transmit efficiently.
In humans, this is likely going to mean that we will reduce our population numbers somewhat also, but we will not get to very small number, or extinction, because the remaining will do what is required to survive.
Essentially, we will make the pandemic end… and we can decide to start doing it now, while life is still relatively good, or much, much later… after poverty, disease, disability, and likely conflict have racked the foundations of our world.
To “live with the virus” bats have better host defences, they don’t overdo inflammation and they can get rid of toxic compounds and deal with reactive oxygen species much better than humans.
They literally live with the virus.
In order for humans to “live with the virus” we would need to have similar mechanisms to permit SARS-CoV-2 to be part of our biome without causing all the autoimmune disease and other damage.
We would have to have fundamentally different biochemistry and immune systems.
So we’ve got at least two pandemics and a government that is *still* picking apart the public health protections.
While you are mucking around in La La land talking about 5 day iso for a disease that has peak infectiousness at 6-9 days, monkey pox is emerging.
If you don’t start putting in the ventilation and mask practices that we need… your precious economy is about to tank.
(That, and ensuring we have vaccine supply.)
Yes, monkeypox can transmit in aerosol too… so stop mucking around spreading diseases and learn to control them.
We need to get every single ward in every single hospital capable of reducing airborne disease transmission.