While all the world waits on the edges of our seats for the promising news of hundreds of vaccine candidates being developed globally, the World Health Organisation has just painted a much harsher reality that not all of us might readily accept.
In an online briefing that was held just recently, WHO emergencies expert Dr Mike Ryan has said that we may have to face the fact that the Covid-19 coronavirus may never truly ‘go away’.
The online briefing was part of a warning issued by the WHO on Wednesday (13th May 2020) against countries who were trying to make predictions as to when the pandemic would ‘end’, while calling on for a ‘massive effort’ to control its spread.
“It is important to put this on the table: this virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities, and this virus may never go away,”
“I think it is important we are realistic and I don’t think anyone can predict when this disease will disappear,” he said.
This comes after some countries who have seen successes in flattening the curve have begun to ease lockdown restrictions and allow for businesses to reopen, only to see an emergence of fresh cases again. Dr Ryan has also suggested that just like how the world had coped with HIV, which first appeared in the 1980s, we may similarly have to cope with living alongside Covid-19 should the virus become endemic.
However, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has mentioned that it is still possible to control the trajectory of the virus, with a global effort, according to BBC.
“The trajectory is in our hands, and it’s everybody’s business, and we should all contribute to stop this pandemic,” he said.
To date, more than 4.2 million people have been infected with Covid-19, and the virus has already killed over 300,000 worldwide.
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