Experts are warning that the UK will be living with COVID-19 for many years to come and have said that a vaccine is unlikely to eliminate it for good
Sir Jeremy Farrar, the director of the Wellcome Trust, told the House of Commons’ Health Committee that “things will not be done by Christmas”.
He went on to say that humanity would be living with the coronavirus for “decades”. This comes after Boris Johnson said last week that he had hoped for a return to normality before Christmas.
The Prime Minister made the comments as he lays out his plans to further reduce the nationwide lockdown restrictions in England, including the opening of leisure centres and indoor swimming pools on the 24th of July, as well as the prospect of mass gatherings being permitted from the autumn.
This comes after ministers reportedly “did not want to know” if Russia had meddled in the EU referendum vote, an MP says, as the government dismisses an investigation.
Sir Jeremy, a member of Sage, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, said that the world would be living with the coronavirus for “very many, many years to come”.
“Things will not be done by Christmas. This infection is not going away, it’s now a human endemic infection.
“Even, actually, if we have a vaccine or very good treatments, humanity will still be living with this virus for very many, many years…. decades to come.”
He urged against complacency during the summer, saying the period was a “crucial phase” to prevent a second wave.
“If we have any sense of complacency of ‘this is behind us’, then we will undoubtedly have a second wave, and we could easily be in the same situation again.”
“The reality is that this pathogen is here forever, it isn’t going anywhere,” he told MPs.
“Look at how much trouble they’ve had in eliminating, for example, polio, that eradication programme has been going on for 15 years and they’re still not there.”
“So this is going to come and go, and we’re going to get winters where we get a lot of this virus back in action.”
“The vaccine is unlikely to have a durable effect that’ll last for a very long time, so we’re going to have to have a continual cycle of vaccinations, and then more disease, and more vaccinations and more disease.”
“So I think the idea that we’re going to eliminate it across the population, that’s just not realistic.”
This comes after plans to bring an end to controversial “gay conversion therapy” in the UK will be brought forward following a government “study” on the issue, the Prime Minister has said.
Prof Sir John Bell, of the University of Oxford, said that he thought it was unlikely that the coronavirus would ever be eliminated.
He said to MPs
“The reality is that this pathogen is here forever, it isn’t going anywhere,”
“Look at how much trouble they’ve had in eliminating, for example, polio, that eradication programme has been going on for 15 years and they’re still not there.”
