That's possible too. I'm 62 and as it happens Tuesday I see my doctor (every 6 months) and will talk to him about it. It's an issue with the potential to have an effect on life as we've become use to living in it. We are a society of individuals and not altogether independent of each other no matter what some might want to think. The more equably we share the stronger we will be in facing something like this. Again it's a strong argument for M4A and to speak of potential again everyone right up to the POTUS whether they contract it or not is vulnerable and right now we don't have an effective way of stopping its spread and as contagious as it seems to be it could be with us for a long time so getting a flu shot to combat it is essential but we might be talking 2 or 3 years down the line for that.
I feel kind of bad I keep replying to this while I should be studying for my ophtalmology exam on Monday, but I can't help it and the school might get cancelled anyway LOL.
With the most up to date info that I have from yesterday, it really doesn't seem to be that much more dangerous than the flu (which can still dangerous btw, so get your flu shot next Fall if you can!). So I have a hard time imagining this will affect the global society in the long run. In the short run, there will defnitely be more repercussions though. Right now, I would not be counting on seeing Stanley Cup play-offs this year. In fact, if I had to bet, I would bet against it.
The good news is that the vaccine might not be that far away. In fact, during the SARS coronavirus epidemic some 18 years ago, the work on the vaccine was started and made some headway, before the outbreak was contained, which meant the vaccine was shelved as it was no longer needed.
There is a reason this new coronavirus is named SARS2. Thus, all the previous work can now come into fruition in that the time needed to develop the vaccine might be significantly shorter as the vaccine will likely be similar to the one that was being developed Back then. Tho most optimistic estimates even speak about a few weeks. However, this does not take into account all the safety testing, first on animals and then on humans, that needs to take place before a worldwide-scale distribution. The safety testing could of course be skipped in case the situation got totally out of hand, which hopefully won't happen. But there is still a reasonable chance it could be fast-tracked so that the vaccine would be available towards the end of the summer.
There is also a chance that the epidemic will entirely die off during the summer and never come back as the virus doesn't seem to be doing well in high temperatures. But if it behaves in a similar way to the flu and comes back next season, it still might not be that bad. While coronaviruses are prone to new mutations (this is why we have 3 new types seriously affecting humans in the last 20 years), they do not mutate nearly as much as the flu virus. This would mean that unlike with the flu, a lasting immunity could be achieved either via vaccination or infection and poeple would not be in risk of getting infected again next year. This is obviously just a guess, but it seems plausible at this point.
In terms of effective therapy, we might already have it, we just do not know it yet. Developing a new antiviral agent against SARS2 might take 10 years or longer. But there is circumstantial evidence that some already existing antivirotics might be effective against it. We obviously do not know yet, as the only way of finding out for sure is conducting a double blind, placebo-controlled clinical study. However, the time needed to find out will be drastically shorter than 10 years as the safety profile of these drugs is already known. And who knows, maybe we will have a better idea in just a few months.
