Pandemic to stay for at least 18-24 months: US report

The novel coronavirus will be around for at least 18 to 24 months under any circumstances, a new US report has said, projecting that it will only start to fizzle out when roughly two-thirds of the population is infected and “herd immunity” sets in.

The report comes even as President Trump on Thursday made known his intention to seek reparations of up to $1 trillion from Beijing, alleging that he has a “high degree of confidence” the novel coronavirus originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China. The twin developments undercut any expectation that life – and international relations – will return to pre-2020 days any time soon.

As many report says, the pandemic will continue in a series of “peaks and valleys,” gradually waning over time until it dies out in 2021. “The occurrence of these waves may vary geographically and may depend on what mitigation measures are in place and how they are eased,” the report states, noting that scenario could require periodic reinstitution and subsequent relaxation of mitigation measures over the next 1 to 2 years.

Secondly and at the worst case scenario,” the report further says the current outbreak will be eclipsed by a much larger peak in the fall or winter of this year in echoes of the 1918-19 Spanish Flu pandemic. Smaller peaks will follow before the infection rate is wrestled down with more lockdown measures. The best case scenario projects a “slow burn,” with the pandemic gradually fading away with smaller and smaller peaks from now till 2022.

“Whichever scenario the pandemic follows (assuming at least some level of ongoing mitigation measures), we must be prepared for at least another 18 to 24 months of significant COVID-19 activity, with hot spots popping up periodically in diverse geographic areas,” the report warns, urging the government to level with public that the pandemic will not be over soon and to prepare for the worst-case scenario two – where no vaccine is available and herd immunity has not been met this year.

Without offering any evidence, that he has reason to believe that the coronavirus outbreak originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China says, President Donald Trump. “I can’t tell you that. I’m not allowed to tell you that,” Trump said at a White House event when asked what evidence he has seen to make him believe that the virus emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.

I think that the World Health Organization should be ashamed of themselves, because they’re like the public relations for China,” Trump added, implying that the international health agency was covering up for China.

“This country,” Trump said, referring to the United States, “pays them [WHO] almost $500 million a year, and China pays them $38 million a year and “They [WHO] shouldn’t be making excuses when people make horrible mistakes, especially mistakes that are causing hundreds of thousands of people around the world to die.

Trump however indicated that he is favour of a more moderate approach such as imposing massive tariffs on Chinese imports and ending flight of manufacturing jobs to the country.

“You know you have the dollar to protect. We want to protect the sanctity of the dollar… its the greatest currency in the history of the world,” Trump said, dismissing the idea of stiffing China on US debt, a step which many experts have warned will torpedo the global financial system.