Fauci has been one of the lead members of the Trump Administration’s White House Coronavirus Task Force addressing the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States is considered one of the most trusted medical figures in the country, who during a Senate hearing, told lawmakers that the coronavirus will not go away?
In 1918 there was a huge influenza pandemic, called the “Spanish Flu”. The pandemic lasted a little over a year and killed millions of people.
The pandemic eventually ended, as enough people gained immunity from having been exposed and survived that the transmission rate dropped below the critical value.
The single most common cause of the flu in the 21st century is the influenza A virus, subtype H1N1—the very same virus that caused the 1918 pandemic. It’s still around a century later. You may remember when it made headlines a decade ago as “swine flu”.
It’s hard to eradicate a virus. The SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 is closely related to a virus that causes the common cold, so “curing” COVID-19 isn’t likely to be much easier than “curing” the common cold.
The goal is to get a way to immunize people—so that their own immune system can recognize and fight a SARS-CoV-2 infection before it develops into COVID-19. We don’t yet have a vaccine, though there’s promising news coming out on that every day.
Fauci is right. It’s not likely to ever go away. We’ll probably reach a situation where we can manage it effectively without it disrupting society in major ways, but it’ll be with us for a long time to come.
Northern Breeze 