The virus sticks around, but once people develop some immunity to it - either through natural infection or vaccination - they won’t come down with severe symptoms. This is one scenario that scientists foresee for SARS-CoV-2. But there’s a chance the virus that killed more than 1.5 million people in 2020 alone will be the culprit. This will determine the societal costs of SARS-CoV-2 for 5, 10 or even 50 years in the future (see ‘Coronavirus: here to stay?’).įive years from now, when childcare centres call parents to tell them that their child has a runny nose and a fever, the COVID-19 pandemic might seem a distant memory. “The virus becoming endemic is likely, but the pattern that it will take is hard to predict,” says Angela Rasmussen, a virologist from Georgetown University, who is based in Seattle, Washington. “I guess COVID will be eliminated from some countries, but with a continuing (and maybe seasonal) risk of reintroduction from places where vaccine coverage and public-health measures have not been good enough,” says Christopher Dye, an epidemiologist at the University of Oxford, UK.
![sauce me up meme sauce me up meme](https://pics.esmemes.com/flash-article-early-year-drought-irl-experiencing-a-devastating-post-holiday-51002767.png)
In zero-COVID regions there would be a continual risk of disease outbreaks, but they could be quenched quickly by herd immunity if most people had been vaccinated. More than one-third of the respondents to Nature’s survey thought that it would be possible to eliminate SARS-CoV-2 from some regions while it continued to circulate in others. Influenza and the four human coronaviruses that cause common colds are also endemic: but a combination of annual vaccines and acquired immunity means that societies tolerate the seasonal deaths and illnesses they bring without requiring lockdowns, masks and social distancing. The future will depend heavily on the type of immunity people acquire through infection or vaccination and how the virus evolves. It’s unrealistic,” says Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.īut failure to eradicate the virus does not mean that death, illness or social isolation will continue on the scales seen so far. “Eradicating this virus right now from the world is a lot like trying to plan the construction of a stepping-stone pathway to the Moon. Almost 90% of respondents think that the coronavirus will become endemic - meaning that it will continue to circulate in pockets of the global population for years to come (see 'Endemic future'). In January, Nature asked more than 100 immunologists, infectious-disease researchers and virologists working on the coronavirus whether it could be eradicated. It’s a beautiful dream but most scientists think it’s improbable.
![sauce me up meme sauce me up meme](https://img-comment-fun.9cache.com/media/ao9049e/aVlWqXab_700w_0.jpg)
If other regions, aided by vaccines, aimed for a similar zero-COVID strategy, then could the world hope to rid itself of the virus?
SAUCE ME UP MEME FREE
But the experience in Western Australia has provided a glimpse into a life free from the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. The state maintained this enviable position only by placing heavy restrictions on travel and imposing lockdowns - some regions entered a snap lockdown at the beginning of the year after a security guard at a hotel where visitors were quarantined tested positive for the virus.
![sauce me up meme sauce me up meme](https://pics.me.me/my-brother-holds-phone-camera-up-say-burgundy-sauce-me-55700565.png)
Friends gathered in pubs people kissed and hugged their relatives children went to school without temperature checks or wearing masks. For much of the past year, life in Western Australia has been coronavirus-free.