Hi John. Hope you and family are doing well.
I suspect that it will be with us either forever or for decades, but I wonder if the death rate will fall substantially. My feeling is that researchers will discover what truly makes an individual more likely to die, and not these very vague labels of age, ethnicity, health, diabetes, etc. I think that we will find that those most likely to die have disproportionately already done so. Also, researchers will find far more effective treatments for those with the disease, thus also reducing the risk of death.
One thing is for certain, IF we want life to return to 'normal', the social distancing and face masks cannot become the norm.
I think we have to plan for a vaccine to be generally ineffective from year to year, just as the flu vaccine is.
Very sad times.
I also suspect that this thing was around in China a LOT longer than anyone in authority cares to admit. As early as a year before? Quite possibly. How early did it arrive in the UK? Maybe as early as a year ago. Nothing else could explain why it was so widespread so quickly.
I still don't have my sense of taste and smell back since I lost it around Christmas/New Year last year. I can still tatse some things. Hot chilli is very mild, for example. But, as I found out the other day, I can't smell when milk is off. Curiously I became very ill (finding it hard to breath, couldn't sleep, high temperature) in late December, which of course culminated in my heart attack. The consultant said to me that, other than my weight, he could see no reason why that artery had blocked. Just one of those things, he said. And, when they scanned my heart afterwards, it was performing surprisingly poorly, and had a lot more damage than they had expected.
I wonder, has anybody gone back and tested the bloods of heart patients since last summer, if they keep the blood? Though I don't suppose they do keep the blood.