WHO Shares Horrifying 20-Year COVID Prediction for Illinois, Wisconsin

Is the pandemic over or not? I understand that I'm not the only one who has this question.

I, like most of the world, was excited to get back to "normal" life as soon as possible. I don't think anyone anywhere is ready to go back to living life under Covid restrictions.

Then I read this from the Irish Star that mentions a kind of scary "20-year prediction following their most recent Covid warning."

If you're looking for worse news, apparently my question as to whether the pandemic is "over" has been answered:

A spokesperson for WHO said that the pandemic is 'far from over' as infection levels are 'two to 19 times' higher than numbers being reported around the world.

Then there's this:

The US is reportedly fighting its 'second-worst' ever Covid situation.

Whether you want to believe the "reportedly" part or not, there has been an uptick in Covid cases in Illinois:

The Land of Lincoln has seen hospitalizations increase by approximately 28% to 30% over the last four weeks, Dr. Vidya Sundareshan, infectious diseases specialist with Southern Illinois University Medicine and medical advisor to Sangamon County Department of Public Health, told the News-Democrat recently.

Here's the part that got me though, the outlook on the future with people who have had Covid, and those who might still according to Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove head of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Emerging Diseases and Zoonoses Unit:

Five years, 10 years, 20 years from now, what are we going to see in terms of cardiac impairment, pulmonary impairment, neurologic impairment? It’s year five in the pandemic, but there’s still a lot we don’t know about it.

I don't know what's scarier, Van Kerkhove's outlook on the next two decades or the fact that the doctor referred to the pandemic in the present tense.