“This virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities, and this virus may never go away,” a top WHO official said.
A top World Health Organization official warned Wednesday against trying to predict when COVID-19 will disappear. Instead, WHO Emergencies Director Dr. Mike Ryan said the novel coronavirus will be hard to wipe out completely.
According to John Hopkins University’s latest data, more than 4.4 million people worldwide have been infected and nearly 300,000 have died from COVID-19. And the end of the virus may not be in sight anytime soon, Ryan said.
“I think its important to put this on the table: this virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities, and this virus may never go away,” Ryan said.
He brought up the fact that HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is still around decades later, but therapies have allowed people with the virus to live “long, healthy lives.”
“HIV has not gone away, but we have come to terms with the virus and we have found the therapies and we found the prevention methods and people don’t feel as scared as they did before,” he said.
