Coronavirus is increasingly likely to become endemic, according to WHO

“We have to learn to live with it,” said two WHO experts today, who anticipated that Covid-19 will continue to exist despite vaccines. Of course, they anticipated that the world is prepared to live with the new coronavirus thanks to all the public health tools that have been developed in this pandemic year.

According to two renowned infectious disease experts, the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is increasingly likely to become endemic in humans, that is, that does not disappear with vaccines.

“The most likely scenario is that the virus becomes another endemic virus and that it poses a very low level of threat in the context of a global vaccination program,” the director of the health emergencies area said today at a press conference. the World Health Organization (WHO), Mike Ryan.

“The existence of a vaccine, even highly effective, is not a guarantee of the elimination or eradication of an infectious disease”Ryan added. Of course, he assured that vaccination against covid-19 will allow, however, to control the spread of the coronavirus and for societies to return to normal.

The Organization’s experts had already commented last May that there was a possibility that the coronavirus would become endemic, a prediction that is being reinforced in light of what has been learned about this virus since then.

Of a similar opinion was the renowned specialist in infectious diseases, David Heymann, who said that “the concept of herd (or collective) immunity has been a misunderstanding when it is believed that it will somehow decrease the contagion if enough people are immunized” .

Heymann, who led the unit that fought against SARS at the WHO, said that no one can predict how immunity will evolve because there are many things that are not yet known about it, such as the duration of immunity offered by vaccines that have been authorized.

“It seems that the destiny of this coronavirus is to become endemic, as has happened with others. This coronavirus will continue to mutate as long as it reproduces in human cells, especially in areas of intense transmission, “he explained.

The scientist anticipated that the world will be able to live with the new coronavirus thanks to all the public health tools that have been developed in this pandemic year. The coronavirus “will continue to spread despite vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tests. We have to learn to live with it “Heymann commented.