The WHO director of emergencies has warned that the virus that causes COVID-19 could become endemic, even if we get to have a fully effective vaccine.
Also, he assured in a press conference that nobody knows how long it will take to control the pathogen. Experts do not know for sure when the coronavirus pandemic will end.
“How long will the coronavirus remain with us?” – asked WHO Executive Director of Health Emergencies, Mike Ryan, at a press conference.
“We have a new virus that has penetrated the world population for the first time, so it is challenging to know when it will disappear. The only thing that we scientists can affirm is that the prevalence is relatively low today.
In this context, when we are asked to the experts who project in time, it is essential to make clear this virus can become another endemic virus, it may never disappear, “explained the specialist. And that is precisely one of the big questions about the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.
“There are no promises, no dates,” he said, lowering expectations that the invention of a coronavirus vaccine will provide a quick end to the economic and health crisis, a possibility he compared to ” shooting the moon.”
“You have to be realistic,” admitted the scientist, ” there is no evidence that allows us to know when this virus will last.
Even if we do it well, if we have a vaccine and distribute it to all the population that needs it, we do not have all the guarantees. The vaccine has to be effective, available to everyone, and the population has to accept it.
Each of the steps is full of challenges, ”concluded the expert, who compared the effectiveness of the measure with the death of 81 people in Samoa last November, many of them children whose parents had decided not to vaccinate them.
Media briefing on #COVID19 with @DrTedros https://t.co/euggX435FQ
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) May 13, 2020
