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13 May 2020updated 06 Oct 2020 9:45am

WHO: Covid-19 “may never go away”

By Rohan Banerjee

The coronavirus that causes Covid-19 may never be fully eradicated, according to the World Health Organisation’s emergencies expert Mike Ryan.

While he remains hopeful that a vaccine can be developed – more than 100 potential inoculations are currently being made around the world, including several at clinical trial stage – Ryan said that that these projects still represented a “massive moonshot”.

In the event that that the virus becomes “just another endemic” like HIV that “may never go away”, Ryan said that the world would have to learn how to control and contain it. Ryan said it would take a “massive effort” from governments to rethink areas of public policy, including transport and urban planning.
 

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