The #World #Health #Organization (WHO) considers it likely that #Covid-19 will become endemic from 2021, even with the vaccination processes underway, while calling on #Monday to prepare for “even worse” health scenarios in the coming years .
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The statements were offered by #Mike #Ryan, director of the WHO health emergencies area, who also considered it likely that the virus will not disappear with vaccines and, therefore, become an endemic virus in humans and some animals, or in both of them.
“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,” said who is one of those responsible for the fight against the pandemic in the WHO.
There will be set backs & new challenges in 2021, like new variants of #COVID19. #At present, we are working closely with scientists to better understand any & all changes to the virus & how these changes affect its ability to spread, or any potential impact on available tools.
– #Tedros #Adhanom #Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros)
#December 29, 2020
#At a press conference in #Geneva, the agency’s headquarters, the director of the health emergencies area pointed out that the existence of a vaccine, even highly effective, is not a guarantee of the elimination or eradication of an infectious disease.
#In turn, the infectious disease specialist, #David #Heymann, stressed that the concept of herd (or collective) immunity “has been misunderstood”, since it is believed that it will somehow decrease contagion if enough people are immunized. “
“#Nobody can predict how immunity will evolve, because there are many things that are not yet known in relation to it, such as the duration offered by licensed vaccines,” he said.
#For the past year, @WHO and our partners have worked relentlessly to support all countries as they respond to the virus. #Staff have worked around the clock to accelerate science, provide solutions on the ground and build solidarity. https://t.co/AHuyUOqlgL
– #Tedros #Adhanom #Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros)
#December 28, 2020
#However, the health leader said that “it seems that the destiny of this coronavirus is to become endemic, as has happened with others. #This coronavirus will continue to mutate to the extent that it reproduces in human cells, especially in areas of intense transmission.”
The scientist warned that even when the application of the vaccine is extended, the virus will remain, but thanks to the new health tools developed this year, the world will be able to live with the new coronavirus, which “will continue to spread despite vaccines, the treatments and the diagnostic tests. #We have to learn to live with it. “
#In turn, the WHO warned that, despite the severity of the #Covid-19 crisis, which has so far resulted in more than 1.7 million deaths, we must prepare for other even “worse” pandemics, since what happened this year “is only an alarm signal.”
#Ryan himself warned that “this pandemic has been very tough.”
“#It circulated around the world very quickly and affected every corner of the planet, but it has not been, strictly speaking, the worst” because “its mortality levels are relatively low compared to other emerging diseases”, which it should do “that let’s prepare in the future for something even worse, “he added.
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