 Unfortunately, we've passed some really devastating and disturbing milestones with regard to COVID-19. We are probably going to pass 160,000 deaths within the next week or so. And in terms of confirmed cases, we're approaching 6 million pretty quickly. So you know, as this pandemic continues, it's still not feeling more normal like this prolonged lockdown where we self-quarantine, it doesn't feel normal. And as we get more information, as we learn more about COVID-19 and the way it affects people, we're also learning more in general about the way that viruses function. And you know, with something that's new like this, you think that you know one thing, but you know, that information changes. And we have to be able to stay informed so we can adapt with new information. So one thing early on that gave us hope that maybe we'd reach herd immunity was the fact that after people got COVID-19 and they had the antibodies, they would seemingly be immune. Now, we were hopeful that that immunity would last for a while, but it's seeming more and more like that immunity is temporary. So that's really bad news, but that necessarily isn't definitive yet because we don't know if that's just with some people, maybe others. You know, their bodies produced a big enough antibody response to where they're permanently immune. We just don't know. And we're trying to stop this virus with incomplete information, but we are learning more. And there is hope, right? I mean, there's some really promising results based on the vaccine trials. That's something that's good. Now, another question is, will they be affordable and widely available? And, you know, even if we get the vaccines, I think that as we learn more about this virus and as a lot of us who are obviously not epidemiologists are learning for the first time, the way that these viruses function, we have to adjust what we expect when it comes to getting rid of COVID-19 because even if, you know, this is no longer a pandemic, we may never fully eradicate this virus. It may literally change the way that we live as human beings forever. So I want to share what the chief of the World Health Organization is saying about this because I think it's important that we stay informed about what to expect going forward. So as Nina Golgowski of the Health Post reports, the director of the World Health Organization warned Monday that there may never be a silver bullet for defeating COVID-19, even as pressure mounts from the White House to create a vaccine well before the end of this year. A number of vaccines are now in phase three clinical trials, and we all hope to have a number of effective vaccines that can help prevent people from infection. World Health Organization director general, Tadros Adhanum, Gabriel Suss, said at a media briefing, however, there's no silver bullet at the moment and there might never be. Tadros instead stressed the importance of exercising the basics of public health and sieges control to stop outbreaks from occurring. Testing, isolating and treating patients and tracing and quarantining their contacts do it all he urged. There are currently six coronavirus vaccine candidates in late-stage testing or close to it. Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a White House Coronavirus Task Force member, said last week that he's cautiously optimistic that we will have a vaccine by the end of this year and as we go into 2021. But Fauci has also said he doesn't believe the virus will ever be eliminated. I think with a combination of good public health measures, a degree of global herd immunity and a good vaccine, which I do hope and feel cautiously optimistic that we will get. I think when we put all three of those together, we will get control of this, whether it's this year or next year. I'm not certain. He told the TB Alliance in an interview last month. I don't really see us eradicating it. So I think that this information is important, not because I want to be a doomer, like I don't want to be an alarmist, but it's important that we stay informed and we're realistic about what to expect with the virus, because if we're not realistic, then we're not going to be equipped to deal with it. So we may not necessarily be able to fully eradicate COVID-19. It may just be a thing that human beings deal with for the rest of time. But that doesn't necessarily mean that we can't neutralize it as a threat, right? That doesn't mean that we aren't able to come up with some type of treatment that makes it not a threat to human beings any longer. But right now, going forward, we have to acknowledge that for the foreseeable future, things are going to have to be a little bit different. This is going to have social and cultural implications as well. I mean, the way that we have been greeting each other, you know, shaking hands, not practicing good hygiene when it comes to washing our hands, these things are going to be looked at differently now post-pandemic, right? Because the goal isn't just to reopen as quickly as possible and then try to pretend like everything is normal. Like, the thing that we want is to actually get back to normality. A nightmare situation is if we think we get control of the virus and we don't and we reopen and we think that everything is copacetic, and then it spreads again and it leads to another pandemic. That would be awful. But right now, it looks as if with these vaccine candidates, we can resume a somewhat normal society. But it will never fully be the same. I think that's really what this is getting across here, right? We're never going to be able to fully eradicate it. There's no silver bullet, so it's not like once the vaccine becomes available, everything returns to normal immediately. That's not necessarily what we should be thinking. It's going to be, as Dr. Fauci put it, a combination of things, right? When enough people reach herd immunity and whatnot. And I think that as a cultural phenomenon, masks are going to be relevant going into the near future, right? Even when this is eliminated, like, whenever somebody is sick, they're going to have to get into the habit of wearing a mask. And it can't be weird. Like, before the virus a couple of years ago, if you had just the common cold and you went to the store to buy cough drops, you wouldn't necessarily wear a mask, right? Because that would be weird. People would think that you're sicker than you are and want to avoid you. But now, we have to normalize that. We have to normalize, you know, good hand washing, good hygiene, change the way that we interact with each other. Shaking hands, maybe something that just isn't what we should be doing. Maybe normalize fist bumping, you know, elbow bumping. I don't know. But I think that ultimately what I'm trying to get across here is that this is going to change the world for the foreseeable future. Like, things aren't just going to go back to normal as if the virus never existed. Because even in the event, things opened suddenly because we did find a silver bullet, which is unlikely. But even if we found that silver bullet and nobody had to fear the virus, psychologically, there's going to be an impact. People will still be a little bit worried about, you know, going back to the movies. You know, resuming life is as normal and not to mention all the economic suffering that has been done because of this pandemic, because our government didn't respond appropriately. That's not going to be undone with the pandemic. So for the foreseeable future, the fallout from this virus is going to be something that we have to deal with as a society. And that's the key here, right? I think that eventually things will get back to what many of us perceive to be normal. But it's going to take a really long time. It's going to take a really long time. So, you know, the goal here is not to scare you. It's to make sure that you're realistic and informed about this virus. Because if we, you know, are not really looking at this realistically here, then we're going to be worse off. And as a society, we have to know what to expect. And part of that means that we accept the reality, the grim reality that there may be no silver bullet. It may just never be eradicated, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we'll be in lockdown forever. It just means that, you know, if the cases of COVID-19 pop up once in a while, you know, maybe we'll be able to deal with it. But for now, this is going to change things. In the short term, it's really going to change a lot. Long term, not necessarily as much, but I think over time we will adapt to the changes that we've made because of COVID-19. I think that new cultural practices will be normalized. I think wearing a mask should hopefully be more normalized when people realize it's, you know, not necessarily something that's bad. We have to, as a society, you know, take precautions to reduce the risk of spreading any germs because it's not just COVID. Like as climate change approaches, like I think that this thing could become more common. So we have to minimize the spread of germs as a society and normalize the things that we're learning through COVID-19 going forward. So that's all I'll say. I'm just trying to help us all stay informed. We have to make sure that we do our parts. We have to stop this from spreading. And that's really all that you can do as an individual. Hope as much people as possible are informed and hope that we all are responsible and act like grownups. That means wearing a mask, social distancing, washing our hands until we basically minimize the threat of COVID-19 to the extent that we can get back to normal.