Altering bleak predictions will require resolve

The possibility of ongoing social distancing and limited business openings over the next several weeks can be depressing enough for many, but there are some other projections that paint an even bleaker picture of the months ahead.

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health used what’s known about the novel coronavirus and other coronaviruses to create scenarios of the current pandemic, and the results were startling: possible social distancing, school closures, and stay-at-home orders until 2022.

It’s hard to imagine the kinds of social, emotional, and economic distress people would have to endure to go another two years under current conditions.

The researchers also noted that “predicting an end to the pandemic in the summer … is not consistent with what we know.”

That gloomy outlook was compounded by a warning from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that “the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through” and that medical professionals will likely find themselves dealing with both the coronavirus and seasonal flu cases at the same time.

The uncertainty of when the coronavirus pandemic might subside continues to produce anxiety worldwide, but the good news is that measures now in place have at least slowed the spread and given researchers what they need most — time.

Time to develop more efficient and quicker testing methods to identify those infected and mass produce those tests.

Time to determine if those who survived infection could now be immune.

Time, most of all, to develop a vaccine that would put an end to this terrible, invisible threat.

While governors in several states are eager to reopen businesses in the next few weeks, many more are taking a more cautious and deliberate approach.

And an overwhelming number of Americans remain in favor of the containment efforts now in place.

A survey by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 61 percent of Americans felt the actions taken to slow the spread of infections were the right decisions.

Only 12 percent of those surveyed said the measures where they live went too far.

The best medical minds in the world continue to work on solutions to this pandemic, and there are glimmers of hope.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved a test that would allow people to collect samples using an at-home test kit that could be mailed to a lab for testing.

That could increase testing by millions of people and provide the data so desperately needed.

An experimental drug, remdesivir, has proved effective in shortening the time it takes patients to recover and could lead to the development of other treatments.

The way to alter those bleak projections is to continue social distancing and limited contact, and to put our trust and faith in the world’s medical research teams.