Exceptionally gloomy COVID-19 roundup with lots of links

[swag]

https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-crisis-worse-fear-c88158d2-64a3-4da6-a85a-cc6556a6207d.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top

The coronavirus crisis is way worse than feared
Axios
Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen

Excerpt:

It's deflating, but it would be derelict to ignore: The hope of anything approximating normal in the coming months — and probably well beyond — is gone.

Why it matters: It's great and normal to cheer for a miracle cure or sudden coronavirus retreat. But the experts who study the virus closest seem unanimous in their verdict that our health, economic and social pain will persist for many months to come.

It’s time to recalibrate expectations based on this stark reality:

Bill Gates warned in a blog post this week: "t is impossible to overstate the pain that people are feeling now and will continue to feel for years to come."

Gates said full stadiums and big concerts, both of which will be signs of true normal, "probably will not make the cut for a long time."
Anthony Fauci sketched for Snapchat a best-case vision of stadiums without spectators, and whole teams quarantined in hotels for the season, undergoing frequent testing.

Fauci is among the experts who keep telling us that even if the virus recedes in the coming weeks, it won't be gone: "[W]e will have coronavirus in the fall."

. . .

The big picture: One of the most sobering reads of the past week was a synthesis by the N.Y. Times' Donald McNeil of his gloomy conversations with 20+ experts about the next year or two:

"[T]he scenario that Mr. Trump has been unrolling at his daily press briefings — that the lockdowns will end soon, that a protective pill is almost at hand, that football stadiums and restaurants will soon be full — is a fantasy, most experts said."
🥊 "All the experts familiar with vaccine production agreed that even [Fauci's timeline of at least a year to 18 months] was optimistic."
National Geographic notes: "The mumps vaccine—considered the fastest ever approved—took four years to go from collecting viral samples to licensing a drug in 1967. "
Plus there's little evidence of heat killing the virus.

High hopes for an experimental treatment by Gilead Sciences were set back by inconclusive results.
And the World Health Organization said today there is "no evidence” that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection, per Reuters.

. . . more