Covid may never go away even with a vaccine : Report - Livemint

Even after a COVID-19 vaccine is developed and deployed, the coronavirus will likely remain for years to come, and may eventually, become endemic like HIV, measles and chickenpox, The Washington Post reported.

According to the US daily, experts in epidemiology say embracing the prolonged stay of COVID-19 is crucial to the next phase of the US's coronavirus pandemic response.

And many experts believe that COVID-19 will become the fifth.

"This virus is here to stay," Sarah Cobey, an epidemiologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Chicago was quoted as saying by Post.

As things are heading, many experts believe this COVID-19 could become relatively benign, causing milder infections as our immune systems develop a memory of responses to the virus.

Barney Graham, deputy director of the federal government's Vaccine Research Center, said emerging plans for vaccination are already stretching as far out as 10 years.

"We also assume that everyone will want the vaccine because of the devastation this virus has caused, but that's a big assumption," said Howard Koh, a top US health official during the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic.

Additionally, the experts believe that people won't make the shift toward long-range thinking up till the infection spreads more widely and affects someone they know.