COVID-19 is here to stay as lesser threat, warn scientists amid concerns over variants

With new emerging variants of COVID-19, scientists have warned that virus is here to stay and have furr noted that it has become clear that new strains can slip past of immunity generated by vaccines and prior infections. According to Washington Post, scientists said that vaccines may have to be updated, perhaps regularly and researchers will also have to remain vigilant. y also ded that world will also have to prepare for possibility, even likelihood, that over long term, novel COVID-19 will become persistent disease threat - one that could eventually end up closer to flu or common cold. Health experts have noted that in countries such as Brazil, South Africa and UK, where fearsome “variants of concern” have emerged, possessing ability to spre more efficiently or eve aspects of immune response. Scientists are also grappling with preliminary evidence that people with a previous infection were susceptible to reinfection with a variant, as well as a growing body of data that many vaccines are less efficacious against variant. 

"This has tremendous implications . . . in terms of what you can expect with future resurgences of virus, in terms of how long virus will continue - and for all intents and purposes, SARS-CoV2 virus, covid-19, is likely to be with us during course of our lifetimes," Shabir A. Mhi, a professor of vaccinology at University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

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Shabir A. Mhi, a professor of vaccinology at University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, said that this has “tremendous implications”, in terms of what one can expect with future resurgences of virus, in terms of how long virus will continue and for all intents and purposes, COVID-19, is likely to be with us during course of our lifetimes. However, several experts also believe that crisis phase of pandemic will recede. y have said that y would with novel coronavirus will feel markedly different as threat of health or hospitalisation diminishes. 

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Vaccination campaigns need to ‘accelerate’ 

Health experts say that threat posed by coronavirus will attenuate as immunity builds up in human population, chiefly through vaccinations that work best at preventing severe outcomes that threaten to overwhelm hospitals and kill people. y have noted that most hopeful signal has come from a one-shot vaccine from Johnson & Johnson, which shoed strong protection against severe disease from variant, even though it offered less-robust protection against moderate illness. Furr, scientists also thing Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine may also protect against severe illness caused by variant, but y currently lack data to draw any conclusions.

Scientists, however, are still hesitant to make firm predictions, given how many surprises pandemic has produced during past year, but many also believe that even current generation of vaccines will go a long way to restoring normalcy. Moncef Slaoui, a former chief science viser to Operation Warp Speed, said that he doesn’t think society will open as world is always going to have colds or some or disease. health experts agree that vaccination campaigns need to accelerate and y also need to prepare for what will happen as virus spres and acquired new mutations. 

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