Maxouris, Christina. “There's a Light at the End of the Tunnel, but Coming Months Will Be Covid-19 'Worst-Case Scenario,' Expert Says.” CNN, Cable News Network, 4 Dec. 2020, edition.cnn.com/2020/12/04/health/us-coronavirus-friday/index.html.
Friday, December 4, 2020
Will coming months be the "worst-case" scenario for the US?
This pandemic has been difficult for everybody, but we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. As we are waiting for the approval and distribution of the highly anticipated vaccine, health experts are saying that the next few months will likely be extremely difficult for the country. Emergency medicine physician Dr. Leana Wen has said that the next three months are going to be "the most difficult in the public health history of this nation." Hospitals are expected to be overwhelmed in terms of the death count due to the virus. Hospitalizations also reached six figures for the first time ever this week, with now more than 100,600 Covid-19 patients nationwide. With death tolls once again rising, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine warned hospitals were not only in a crisis, but that "the crisis is worsening and getting more serious." This country's healthcare system is clearly under immense stress and pressure. Moreover, we still don't know the exact impact of Thanksgiving traveling and get togethers on the spread of the virus. On the bright side, the leading vaccine that has been developed by Pfizer is 95% effective as shown by their large scale trials. They are expected to apply for emergency use with the FDA as soon as December 10th, and distribution of the vaccine is expected to begin within a week after approval. This is a huge positive, however, people still need to be careful for the upcoming months until health experts instruct otherwise. With that being said, do you think that people will continue to follow the provided guidelines after being vaccinated, as suggested by healthcare experts? What impact do you think this vaccine will have on the economy of the country? How soon after the distribution of this vaccine do you think we will be able to return to some sense of normalcy?
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I am quite certain that after the vaccine starts being distributed, people may be too optimistic. I have a feeling that people will start being more careless. I do not know how this will result as there might be more cases, but then people will also be vaccinated. This will be a great test to see if the vaccine really works. I think based on what has been said that there still won't be normalcy for about a year.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you Libby I definitely think that as the vaccines come out and are distributed many people will believe they are immune to covid and I could even see people without vaccines becoming more careless
ReplyDeleteI also believe that many people will not take the vaccine for a while, which will delay the point where most people are immune. This will likely be not good for public health or for the economy as a whole. In order to get the economy rolling again we need as many people as possible to take the vaccine.
ReplyDeleteIt will take a while for the vaccines to be widely available and many people will be skeptical about taking a vaccine that was developed and distributed so rapidly but I am optimistic that a combination of the vaccine, the introduction of new forms of treatment and the implementation of broader mask mandates and other public health measures combine to create a real "light at the end of the tunnel." It looks like we are in for a tough winter but some semblance of normal will return next spring.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that many are overly optimistic about the vaccine, and that can be shown in stock market performance over the past two months. The vaccine is what will get us out of this pandemic state, but the end is not as close as people think. Hospitalization and ICU levels are a major challenge in the US and in Ohio and people need to remain patient until it truly is safe to start returning to "normal".
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone that with the announcement of an effective vaccine, people will become more careless with their actions and could potentially increase cases for covid. More cases than the vaccine is produced and distributed. And I think there may be a perception that a vaccine will be given to everyone soon if not by next year. Which I don't think is true. Those that work on the frontlines and the elderly will most definitely receive the vaccine first with the real problem of which groups receive the vaccine next. And I do believe that there will be an unfair distribution of the vaccine especially towards those that can't afford healthcare or minorities, those affected the most by the pandemic.
ReplyDeleteI think that once the vaccine is actually starting to be distributed people will become more careless. They may feel that they are immune because other people have gotten the vaccine or if they have gotten it themselves they are not caring about others. I don't think we will see normalcy until we reach herd immunity. I hope once people start to see how beneficial the vaccine will be for everyone that more people will get it and that ultimately will be better for the economy.
ReplyDeleteI think that there will be some people that start to relax about COVID protocols since there has been a confirmed vaccination. People will see this as an end to the pandemic before it is actually distributed. Normalcy will return once there are very few, if any, cases of the virus still out there.
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