MUSCAT: The coronavirus may “never go away” and could become endemic in the same way as HIV and populations around the world will have to learn to live with it, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned.
As some countries begin gradually easing lockdown restrictions, the WHO said COVID-19 may never be wiped out entirely.
“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. HIV has not gone away, but we have come to terms with the virus,” WHO emergencies expert Mike Ryan said.
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“I think it is important we are realistic and I don’t think anyone can predict when this disease will disappear. I think there are no promises in this and there are no dates. This disease may settle into a long problem, or it may not be.”
However, Ryan said the world had some control over how it coped with the disease, although this would take a “massive effort” even if a vaccine were found, a prospect he described as a “massive moonshot”.
More than 100 potential vaccines are being developed, including several in clinical trials, but experts have underscored the difficulties of finding ones that are effective against coronaviruses.
Almost 300,000 people worldwide are reported to have died with coronavirus, and more than 4.3m cases recorded.
