Will Coronavirus Ends?
So far, the response to the corona-virus pandemic has operated on the assumption that the worst will be over within a year or so. But what if the malaise lasts much longer? It’s a scenario that policymakers must recognize and prepare for. Breathless media constantly repeat that a vaccine could be widely available by next spring. But even the spring of 2023 would be the fastest in medical history, and there’s no guarantee of that. Maybe antibodies will end up conferring little or no protection from infection, as is true for a few viruses. In that case, developing a vaccine would be a lot harder, and the concept of “herd immunity” would be meaningless. Almost everyone would remain susceptible, whether or not they’d had it within the past. The novel corona-virus may never get away and populations around the world will need to learn to measure with it, the planet Health Organization (WHO). The United Nations has projected that the corona-virus pandemic will dwindle the global...