The virus is never going to stop unless they can figure out how to completely eradicate the flu virus. This virus is a type of flu virus. It will peak as all flu viruses do and then it will return the following year just like the flu that we've been experiencing for decades. It's already here in this country -- over 5,000 have been asked to self-isolate. Also realize that the screening/temperature checks at the airport are ineffective.
For clarification, this is not an influenza virus. It is a coronavirus. It is not yet known if the COVID-19 virus will return year after year as a seasonal influenza would or if it will burn out and not (yet) reappear much as SARS and MERS did - not becoming endemic i.e. returning year to year.
Think of viruses as car brands. You have Fords and Chevys and Toyotas, etc. Many different and distinct car brands and many different and distinct types of viruses.
So think of influenza as being a “Ford brand†and coronaviruses as being a “Chevy brandâ€.
But within each car brand, there are many different models.
With Ford, you have many different models ranging from the Fiesta to the Mustang. There are also different models and options within those models (think of those as mutations).
Within the influenza virus there are many different strains – A, B, C and D and within those various subtypes, just for example in type A alone that cause global pandemics:
H1N1 caused "Spanish flu" in 1918 and "Swine flu" in 2009.
H2N2 caused "Asian Flu".
H3N2 caused "Hong Kong Flu"
The coronavirus and influenza are both viruses just as a Ford and a Chevy are both car brands, but the family of coronaviruses belong to a different family of viruses than influenza.
Some coronaviruses are endemic and are responsible for a percentage of seasonal “common coldsâ€, miserable to get but not particularly dangerous. SARS and MERS, also coronaviruses, were of course like COVID-19, much more serious but haven’t reemerged.