(Photo : Reuters)



Researchers say that COVID-19 may be a lifetime threat if there will be no vaccine or cure that will stop the spread of the virus according to a recently published article.

Life in almost all parts of the world has drastically changed due to the effect brought by COVID-19. Countries with confirmed cases of this virus continue to combat COVID-19 by implementing guidelines such as social-distancing and the avoidance of mass gatherings.

Many are also now financially strained because businesses, schools, and different companies have shut down in an attempt to contain and mitigate the spread of the virus. This led many families and individuals to face financial problems. 

Social-distancing is one of the strategies to flatten the curve. However, this is not a cure, it is only a prevention that will help to mitigate the spread of the virus. While it is true that social-distancing has been adopted in almost all parts of the world, still many chose not to follow this recommendation from the government and infectious disease experts.

Public health experts believed that social-distancing of not less than 1 meter away from each other is one of the best ways to prevent the virus. If this will not be followed, thousands or millions of people will be infected that will overwhelm the healthcare system of a country. 

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Ventilators and ICU beds are very limited. Just like in Italy, where a doctor needs to decide who lives and who dies by pulling out the ventilators from the old and give it to the young ones. Italy is now in a big crisis and they have to let their country survive by letting the young ones to live and old ones to die.

According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House COVID-19 task force, he said that the guidelines set by the U.S. government "were well thought out. And the thing that I want to reemphasize ... when you're dealing with an emerging infectious disease outbreak, you are always behind where you think you are if you think that today reflects where you really are." 

When asked about how long the world will live with the virus and as to when people will win the fight against COVID-19, there is no exact answer. It might be a lifetime threat that will continue to kill millions of people if there will be no vaccines or treatment to stop it.

Adam Kucharski, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and author of The Rules of Contagion, said that "I think this idea ... that if you close schools and shut restaurants for a couple of weeks, you solve the problem and get back to normal life - that's not what's going to happen."

Kucharski, who is a top expert in infectious disease, sees that the virus will continue to circulate around the world for two years or more. He also added that at present, the only way to reduce the transfer of the virus is to follow the severe sustainable precautionary measures like social-distancing and to avoid mass gatherings.

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For him, social-distancing is the only thing that is working right now that helps mitigate COVID-19. If people will not strictly follow social distancing and there will be mass gatherings while the virus has still not contained, it is expected that in just a week there will be another COVID-19 outbreak. 

The only way to stop the virus and will not become a lifetime threat is to have a vaccine or treatment that will cure the infected people. There are now vaccines that are entering into clinical trials but it needs a year before they are approved. This is to make sure that the vaccine has effectively cured infected persons.

In a recent study at the Imperial College of London, it was found out that there is really a need to strictly follow social distancing. They found out two things in their study. First, social distancing will help mitigate or slows down the spread of the virus but not totally stopping it. And second, is to suppress the spread of the virus.

It is also important to take note that it was also found out in their study that even though persons who are tested positive for COVID-19 may still infect hundreds of thousands of people if social-distancing will not be practiced. 

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The Journal of Science published in their report that 86 percent of COVID-19 cases in China before January 23 was not totally detected. This means that days before COVID-19 was discovered there, were already thousands of people carrying or infected with the virus.

Not unless there is a vaccine that will cure enough persons infected with COVID-19, that's the only time the virus will be stopped.