I do believe that the day is coming where war will be declared over against COVID-19 and a cure or treatment and vaccine found but what I fear will not be so predictable is economic recovery from the measures taken to fight this new virus. Many, on the forum here, that have read some of my posts, in the food forum section, will know that I'm one that dines out (or did before the virus) most of the time. Given the effects of the response to the virus in the retail section, I have no doubt that many of the restaurants that have been shut down will not ever be restored to the state they were before this virus hit.
I also cannot conceive of the "Stay at Home" or "Shelter in Place" order working in a state like New York or California due to how large, and unmanageable, some of these cities are and the sheer number of people that call these cities home. So far, and I pray much longer, no loss of civil behavior has been reported and happened but given that so many live paycheck to paycheck and the number of people congregated together in such small places along with the panic already exhibited could soon mean that we start hearing of people attacking others for what they own or possess.
Many anti-gun advocates may soon have to revisit their feelings about firearms and those who possess such weapons may have to use them to repel others, with nefarious intentions, from their own homes. Many have, through the years wondered how this generation and the United States would react to a global pandemic or attack, on the country, where things were necessarily locked down. So many businesses and industries shut down or affected to a degree that never has before happened we now have to wonder can these entities be restored to their previous states, before the orders to close.
Worse the question remains, just how much more are we to see happen as a result? One thing seems certain and that is that the new normal will never be (at least in our lifetimes) as the old normal. This isn't ebola or Chicken Little's sky falling but the responses are not far from it, or so it seems. Many of the younger citizens, I believe, either don't understand what is going on or believe it doesn't affect them or hasn't contemplated the effects that it is going to have on their lives going forward and I'm not talking about the health concerns but the style of life or economic ones. I fear that the new world that we will face will be vastly different from the one we left behind in 2019 in many ways. We, as a Nation, are in new territory and frankly, I'm not that optimistic that recovery from it will be that fast or easy.
While the COVID-19 virus may be similar to the flu that we have been accustomed to the speed of the spread and reactions to it are far from what is common to the pre-existing flu we deal with each year. Many, like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity's initial reactions and thoughts regarding the virus, was a downplaying of it and stated that there is a gross overreaction to it. I believe much of what they believed may have been steered by their belief that the Democrats were going to politicize it against Trump and that it was yet another tool to be used against Trump. I believe that Trump also was affected and influenced, initially, to buy what they believed about it due to his personal respect and acceptance of what they say. What I don't think any of them perceived was the overall reaction to the virus and how fast it spreads and how it would affect the world as a whole. These are people who don't eat Crow (so to say) very easily, and I'm afraid that the very thing they feared, that it would affect Trump's chance for re-election, will come to happen and in the end be exacerbated by their, collective, initial responses to it. The real dangers, to me, of this virus, for the general whole of the population, is more the effect that it has on the economy, people's finances, and our way of life, rather than the health concerns. A drug or treatment may arrest the spread and health effect of the virus but I'm afraid that there will be a far longer time, if ever, for the economy and our government and way of life to recover, if at all these can recover.