Ronstar - It is probably not as big a problem as it sounds. It is a problem for the weak and immunocompromised and particularly those over age 75. Most people who get sick recover. You are correct, it is your own immune system that eventually fights it off. The observations of several re-infections indicate that the immune system, while it can kill it off, cannot prevent a re-infection in some individuals. We do not know if this is typical or atypical. There are two strategies for developing a vaccine. The easiest and most common is to develop antibodies against viral surface proteins, some of which may punch holes in the virus and kill it. Then there are antibodies that bind to the cell receptors and block adhesion. The last strategy is a cellular one in which the vaccine pushes the immune system to develop lymphocytes specific to the viru to kill it directly. The latter will likely end up being the way it gets solved. It is tricky stuff to do and normally takes years of development and testing. You have to run a vaccine through 2 separate species of animal models showing specificity and efficacy as well as safety. The last is the major problem for most new drugs and requires safety testing at multiple doses and routes in multiple sub-populations (men, women, children, pregnant, immunocompromised, elderly, all different races separately and combined, etc.). The safety trials are the toughest and most expensive to get through and takes a lot of time. Then you have efficacy testing which you have to perform in an at risk population with a significant prevalence of disease in double blinded trials and show that it actually protects. A "fast" vaccine to get full approval takes at least 10 years of testing and sometimes billions of dollars. Emergency vaccines can be authorized if the risk/benefit ratio mandates it but this can have consequences long term.
Ebola is an easier problem to manage as it is very hot, has a short incubation time and also short time to death. It is also an old disease which in the good old days was handled by locking the sick up in their huts and setting them on fire eliminating the local problem. The fact that Ebola (and the equally or worse other hemorrhagic fever viruses like Marburg, Lassa Fever, Crimea Congo fever, and the like) kill so quickly it actually makes it a lot easier. Most people are unaware that all of these diseases are currently a problem in Africa with both Ebola and Lassa causing hundreds of deaths a year in Arica. We don't hear about it as it really poses little threat to western countries. We also don't hear much about the seasonal influenza which is killing people at a much higher rate than the Coronaviruses. Why we are so concerned about this particular virus is beyond me. It is the slower disease like the coronaviruses which pose the biggest problem for isolation. Also, if Ebola had emerged in China (large population centers with large movements) it would have had a very different scenario.
So, IMHO this is not as huge a problem as one might assume. Yes, it will spread and infect a lot of people. Some will die but this is really no different than normal influenza.
Here is a good article about influenza:
https://www.globalsecurity.org/security/ops/hsc-scen-3_flu-pandemic-deaths.htm
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