Covid-19 pandemic could last two years, report says

The coronavirus pandemic is likely to last up to two years and will not be controlled until about two-thirds of the world’s population is immune, an expert group said in a statement. report.

Due to its ability to spread from people who do not appear to be sick, the virus may be more difficult to control than influenza, the cause of most pandemics in recent history, according to the report by University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. According to the report, people can be more infectious before symptoms appear.

After locking billions of people around the world to minimize their spread across countries, governments are now cautiously allowing the reopening of businesses and public places. However, the coronavirus pandemic is likely to continue in waves that could last beyond 2022, the authors said.

“Risk communication messages from government officials should incorporate the concept that this pandemic will not end soon,” they said, “and that people must be prepared for possible periodic resurgences of the disease in the next two years.”

Developers are rushing to make vaccines that may be available in small quantities as early as this year. While large amounts of the 2009-2010 flu pandemic vaccine were not available until after the outbreak peaked in the US. In the US, a study has estimated that vaccines prevented up to 1.5 million cases and 500 deaths in that country alone, the report said.

The report was written by CIDRAP Director Michael Osterholm and Medical Director Kristen Moore, Tulane University public health historian John Barry, and Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health.