Social distancing may be needed until 2022: study

PanARMENIAN.Net - People around the world may need to keep social distancing, on and off, until 2022, Fox News cited some scientists at Harvard University as saying.

“Intermittent distancing may be required into 2022 unless critical care capacity is increased substantially or a treatment or vaccine becomes available," the researchers wrote Tuesday, April 15.

A lot also will depend on what happens in the coming months, Bloomberg News reported. For example, will the spread change significantly as the seasons change? And will immunity take hold after people become infected?

In their study, the Harvard researchers used computer models to predict what’s ahead for COVID-19. One possibility is that aggressive mitigation measures could help stop the spread, as happened with SARS in 2003, the Bloomberg report said.

But the more likely scenario, they said, is that social distancing will be needed on an intermittent basis, as the virus comes and goes, like the common flu, until a vaccine or other treatment is developed.

That would mean a slower return to “normal” life than many people may have been expecting.