An NHS doctor has said that the covid pandemic could end this year and become an endemic, in line with the view of an expert in infectious diseases.
According to Yonatan Grad, Melvin J. and Geraldine L. Glimcher Associate Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard, the expectation is that "covid will become endemic essentially means that the pandemic will not end with the virus disappearing."
"Instead, the optimistic view is that enough people will gain immune protection from vaccination and from natural infection such that there will be less transmission and much less covid related hospitalisation and death, even as the virus continues to circulate."
He added: "Since viruses spread where there are enough susceptible individuals and enough contact among them to sustain spread, it’s hard to anticipate what the timeline will be for the expected shift of covid to endemicity.
"It’s dependent on factors like the strength and duration of immune protection from vaccination and natural infection, our patterns of contact with one another that allow spread, and the transmissibility of the virus.
"So the patterns will likely differ considerably from what we saw with the other pandemics because of the heterogeneous responses to covid across the world—with some places engaging in 'zero-covid' policies, others with limited responses, and widely variable vaccine availability and uptake."
Also answering the question on whether there will be an end to the virus is Dr Karan Raj - an NHS surgeon and social media educator.
Taking to TikTok, the NHS doctor said: "Covid-19 is most likely to stay here for a long time but hopefully in 2022 the pandemic will and and the endemic will begin.
"Most scientists agree it is unlikely we will be able to eradicate covid but it will become endemic.
"A part of background life like influenza or the four human coronaviruses that cause the human cold.
"The future of covid probably involves seasonal spikes of cases that cause death and illnesses like the flu and probably at a similar rate but crucially this will be without lockdown, mask wearing and social distancing."
In the comment section of his video, he added: "A combination of high vaccination rates and omicron spreading like wildfire might mean the pandemic ends quicker too!"
