I have no doubt that in due time a remedy will be found to control the COVID-19 which as brought our nation to her knees in a very short amount of time. Once controlled then what? Are we now fully prepared for another pandemic? Or do we need to worry about another possible pandemic in the next 75-100 years?

I would like to think we'd be better prepared should this happen again....but I have my doubts.

Respectfully, are you serious? We’re just getting started with this one.

Yes, I'm serious. I mean I wonder how high the possibility is that another pandemic hits? If one does hit, have we gained enough knowledge and procedures to take on another hit should it happen. I realize its not possible to bring some sort of reassurance to the public about lessons learned but it would be nice to hear some sense of what happens 'next time'.

Yes, I'm serious. I mean I wonder how high the possibility is that another pandemic hits? If one does hit, have we gained enough knowledge and procedures to take on another hit should it happen. I realize its not possible to bring some sort of reassurance to the public about lessons learned but it would be nice to hear some sense of what happens 'next time'.

I'm not sure of your age, but for persons in this country of a certain age, the polio virus was one of the most terrifying things they remember. No one knew what caused it. Should kids go swimming? Stay indoors? Was it in the air?
I never quote 100% odds, but we will 99.9% have another pandemic in your lifetime. We will apply the lessons learned from this one.
That's how we move forward as the human race.

We’re taking and good shot to the shins, but we haven’t been brought to our knees. ... not even close.

I imagine everyone slams their borders shut a lot faster and do more aggressive testing if/when this happens again. There is going a backlash against globalization or at least a movement to be a little bit more independent.

I imagine everyone slams their borders shut a lot faster and do more aggressive testing if/when this happens again. There is going a backlash against globalization or at least a movement to be a little bit more independent.

I am sure there are political positions that will want to do that, but the real catastrophe is the internal spread and our lack of preparedness to deal with it. There's always a knee jerk reaction to externalize the blame, but we have our own issues to deal with. Totally isolating ourselves isn't even a practical endeavor. Though, maybe Mexico would like to build that wall now to keep out diseased Americans.

I am sure there are political positions that will want to do that, but the real catastrophe is the internal spread and our lack of preparedness to deal with it. There's always a knee jerk reaction to externalize the blame, but we have our own issues to deal with. Totally isolating ourselves isn't even a practical endeavor. Though, maybe Mexico would like to build that wall now to keep out diseased Americans.

No. The real catastrophe is that WHO and China decided to pursue a cover-up, which left the rest of the world in a terrible position to prepare.

We’re taking and good shot to the shins, but we haven’t been brought to our knees. ... not even close.

So, not yet, but we're not far off from the eventual effects being a brought to our knees situation. If these social quarantines go on past May, it's essentially game over.

Game over.... And that’s it?. We just give up and shut everything off and disappear?.

We still have electricity, running water, phone service, choice of electronic communications and media. Grocery stores and gas stations, and clothing stores are open. I can go right now and fill up my truck and travel freely anywhere. Businesses offices are still open, manufacturing and construction is still taking place. The manufacturing plant where I’ve worked for over 30 years is kicking out machines left and right.

While this is serious, it amounts to nothing more than a disruption on our way of life. It doesn’t mean that it’s the end of our way of life. We are so used to our comfortable life here in the greatest country on earth, that when that lifestyle is disrupted even a little bit, to many people it automatically spells the end our society as we know it. I refuse to fall into step with those engaging in the hand wringing and forecasting of doom. We have much greater resolve than just throwing up our hands and saying “thats it. It’s over”. We will recover from this. I believe we will come out of this stronger than before. People don’t like being on lock down. And when the restrictions are lifted, you’re going to see people getting out, and a lot of spending resuming all around and life returning to normal.

Others can probably elaborate better than I, but I think it boils down to this: When you take the Capital out of Capitalism, the system doesn't really work. That's the spectre the US and the world in general are facing.

It doesn't mean everyone's going to die or that we're likely to descend into full on anarchy. The people are used to having access to capital that may be immobilized for years if things don't improve in a timely fashion. A week of stand still in the economy does many weeks worth of damage.

we are talking about a great depression level event if this last another month and that might be the best case

At some point soon, life will have to open back up, and still practice the same measures about staying home and developing more tests. The economy cannot continue like this, and most know it. Take steps now to speed up that date (probably mid-April). Hopefully, by then, more tests are available and people will be aware of what the symptoms are, and can stay home until they have no symptoms (government should keep the paid sick leave thing indefinitely until a vaccine or definitive symptom treater is found).

I honestly think the "then what" (as in any form of normalcy) is 60-90 days away at best. Even with that, IMO, CV-19 is here for at least 18-24 months.

I'm still not convinced CV-19 is the widespread physical killer it's being made out to be, but the one certainty is the economic disaster already put into play will languish for a very long time.

I'm still not convinced CV-19 is the widespread physical killer it's being made out to be, but the one certainty is the economic disaster already put into play will languish for a very long time.

I'm right there with ya.... And with the exception of grocery shopping my life really hasn't deviated from normal mostly because with the exception of a few concerts. I'm just not a very social person and prefer to spend my free time at my farm..... Which I'm going to be even more happy to have to escape to during this as well as growing my own food.

I'm right there with ya.... And with the exception of grocery shopping my life really hasn't deviated from normal mostly because with the exception of a few concerts. I'm just not a very social person and prefer to spend my free time at my farm..... Which I'm going to be even more happy to have to escape to during this as well as growing my own food.

I here ya. I'm not on a traditional 'farm' per-se, but we have 2.5 acres and have chickens, rabbits, bee hives, turtles and a good size garden. Keeps us really busy. Once the wife and I stopped watching the news, life really didn't seem that different for us. Here's to hoping the pandemic was overestimated as to it's physical toll and quickly recoverable from a financial perspective.

Have to make testing free and widespread. Being able to keep track of who should be quarantined and who is okay to go out and about is the only way out of this until we get a vaccine. Also of the utmost importance, figuring out an easy way to test for antibodies, to see who has already been infected. That will help make up for the fact that testing has been a disaster thus far, and there are probably tens of thousands of people in this country who had asymptomatic cases, already recovered, don't even know it, and therefore think they are still at risk of getting infected, when they are actually good until this virus mutates.

Otherwise, it is going to take that much longer to get out of this rapidly unfolding economic disaster. As I've mentioned in other threads, you can criticize the closures all you want, but the bottom line is that we are very close to hospitals getting overwhelmed in cities such as Seattle and NYC, and once those stories hit the news, people are going to self-isolate on their own accord, but we'll already be much further up the curve by that time, and we'll have a much deeper hole to dig out of.

Once the wife and I stopped watching the news, life really didn't see that different for us.

Amen to that. Nothing but sensationalism. My wife and I quit watching a long time ago.

Once it looks like the worst may be behind us, l look for a sharp rebound but not to where we were prior to the pandemic. What concerns me is that if we don't get a vaccine or effective drug treatment, it may retun in the fall.

probably buy bigger clothes.

probably buy bigger clothes.

Lol I weighed myself yesterday and was shocked that I'd actually lost a couple pounds in the last week. Apparently stress is a good substitute for exercise.

Lol I weighed myself yesterday and was shocked that I'd actually lost a couple pounds in the last week. Apparently stress is a good substitute for exercise.

Haha, my wife and I were actually talking about that last night. We are big evening snackers and we both realized we just didn't have the appetite for it. So a little weight loss may be one benefit of the current situation.

Lol I weighed myself yesterday and was shocked that I'd actually lost a couple pounds in the last week. Apparently stress is a good substitute for exercise.

I've picked up a couple. Seems like we have way more food around the house than we've ever had. No discipline and too much temptation. :(

I am hearing of possible resurgence of COVID-19 returning possibly this fall. If so, will we go through the same extreme social distancing or have we learned enough so that a resurgence won't be as bad. I realize no one knows for sure but it makes me wonder......

I am hearing of possible resurgence of COVID-19 returning possibly this fall. If so, will we go through the same extreme social distancing or have we learned enough so that a resurgence won't be as bad. I realize no one knows for sure but it makes me wonder......

The problem is, we've also heard "you don't need masks - ooops, nope now you do." "There's going to be 240,000 - 1,000,000 deaths - oooops, now maybe just 60,000 - 80,000." Then there's all the nutty conspiracy theories. We were also told it would just disappear like a miracle. There's even talk the virus is mutating so it's going to come back 10x worse. There is just no telling what should or shouldn't be believed and we've just about heard it all by now. Who knows.

I can't imagine we will be done and rid of CV-19 for the foreseeable future. Unless we discover a vaccine, this will most likely pop up here and there for years to come.

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The problem is, we've also heard "you don't need masks - ooops, nope now you do." "There's going to be 240,000 - 1,000,000 deaths - oooops, now maybe just 60,000 - 80,000." Then there's all the nutty conspiracy theories. We were also told it would just disappear like a miracle. There's even talk the virus is mutating so it's going to come back 10x worse. There is just no telling what should or shouldn't be believed and we've just about heard it all by now. Who knows.

I can't imagine we will be done and rid of CV-19 for the foreseeable future. Unless we discover a vaccine, this will most likely pop up here and there for years to come.

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All you can do is follow the latest qualified medical advice .... not politicians, not wannabee experts, not social commentators. These days with everybody making up their own "truth" it is hard to effectively manage these things. People choose what they want to believe based on their politics or theism.

I think the medical community has a pretty good record of developing vaccines and mitigation strategies. That said, fast tracking and doing real testing probably is a 12-18 month time frame based on history. If we can mitigate with sensible and effective social activity, and at the same time keep learning about how to better treat it, and as more build up antibodies and resistance, we can buy time for the real solutions.

Then, we can reinstate the pandemic team that was crippled a couple of years ago, fund real healthcare initiatives, ramp up critical medical and protective device production, and do a better job of recognizing and reacting quickly, then we might be in much better shape next time. As long as health care is political, we will continue to be subject to these kinds of situations. At some point we have to agree we are all better served by better health care that is affordable to more of our whole society.