Scientist: Coronavirus will remain forever, but there is no need to panic
There is no reason to believe that the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19 will leave the human population.
Vitaly Zverev, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, head of the department of microbiology, virology, immunology at Sechenov University, stated this in an interview published by Komsomolskaya Pravda, answering the question of when will humanity defeat the new virus.
“It’s one thing to defeat the virus. Another thing is that the virus will remain in the human population,” the academician answered. “The fact is that there is no reason to believe that he will somehow leave our human population.” During all this time that we have been fighting viral infections, only one viral disease has so far been completely destroyed - smallpox. This required the efforts of the whole world, agreement, and a good vaccine,” says Zverev.
He recalled that by the time smallpox was eliminated, its incidence was no longer universal, but only in certain regions.
“So the natural smallpox that was there will never come back. Because there are no people who suffer from it in one form or another. As for the coronavirus, it will not be possible to completely destroy it, given that there are no specific drugs or vaccines yet,” the scientist emphasized.
The academician also draws attention to the fact that, fortunately for humanity, the coronavirus is not the smallpox virus.
“Not even the flu in its severity. The population will not die out. The population will acquire immunity to this virus. As a result, seventy percent of the population will get sick. Mostly in mild form. Some will experience it completely asymptomatically. Then everything will depend on how much immunity you develop to this disease. Will it be long or short? Then it will be possible to predict other outbreaks. But from time to time people will get sick. But there will be no such epidemic as now. The main thing is to cope in the current moment,” says the virologist.
He predicts that in the end, as the experience of other infections shows, 70 percent of the population will get sick.
“The main thing is that this be spread out over time, so that medicine does not choke on those patients who need such specialized care,” Zverev concluded.
As PolitNavigator reported, a number of famous Western scientists and doctors urged not to dramatize the situation with coronavirus and not stir up global panic.
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