Coronavirus Will Be Present ‘Forever’, Will Require Regular Vaccinations – Top Medical Expert Warns

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Sir Mark Walport
Sir Mark Walport

A top medical expert has warned that coronavirus will be present ‘forever’ and people are likely to need regular vaccinations against it.

Sir Mark Walport, a former chief scientific adviser, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the pandemic would be controlled by ‘global vaccination.’

He however added that COVID-19 is not “going to be a disease like smallpox which could be eradicated by vaccination”.

Walport, who is also a member of the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), said;

This is a virus that is going to be with us forever in some form or another and almost certainly will require repeated vaccinations.

The scientist warned that it is ‘possible’ the virus will get ‘out of control’ again, but said more targeted measures can now be used instead of a generic lockdown.

Walport said localised lockdowns are the best way to go at the moment to reduce a spike in the spread of COVID-19.

He expressed;

The whole point is to improve the local control, increase the amount of testing, give guidance to avoid that happening, but is there a situation where it could get out of control?

Well obviously that’s possible and that’s why it’s so important that we will work together. People do understand that this is a risk. If it’s allowed to get out of control, then there could be much more draconian measures.

Walport’s comments comes after the head of the World Health Organisation said he hopes the coronavirus pandemic will be over within two years.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that it took two years to overcome the Spanish flu in 1918, but that advances in technology could allow COVID-19 to be stopped in a ‘shorter time’.

Speaking in Geneva on Friday, he said;

Of course, with more connectiveness, the virus has a better chance of spreading.

But at the same time we have also the technology to stop it and the knowledge to stop it. So we have a disadvantage of globalisation, closeness, connectedness but an advantage of better technology. So we hope to finish this pandemic (in) less than two years.

More than 22.81 million people have been reported to be infected by the coronavirus globally and 793,382 have died, according to worldometers.

Some scientists have suggested coronavirus could follow a similar pattern to the deadly Spanish flu, which swept the globe in three waves, claiming about 50 millions lives.

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