Containing coronavirus could take 4-5 years, vaccine now a guaranty: WHO scientist's reality check
A World Health Organisation (WHO) expert, Soumya Swaminathan has said that containing coronavirus pandemic could take 4 to 5 years. In an attempt to temper expectations about the coronavirus containment timeline, the expert said, "I would say in a four to five-year timeframe we could be looking at controlling this."
Speaking at Financial Times' Boardroom webinar on Wednesday, Swaminathan emphasized that there is no 'crystal ball' when it comes to predicting a possible threat of the highly contagious disease in the future.
Swaminathan added that while the world's top scientists are seeking to find a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, which “seems for now the best way out,” she noted there are “lots of ifs and buts” regarding the production, distribution, safety and efficacy of such a drug.
The reality check offered by Swaminathan continued when she further said that the pandemic could 'potentially get worse' as leaders in countries such as the United States are considering the economic and public health risks in lifting restrictions originally put in place to mitigate the impact of the novel coronavirus.
Earlier, Dr Mike Ryan, the executive director of WHO's emergencies program, had said that the coronavirus 'may never go away'.
“We should not be waiting to see if the opening of lockdowns has worked by counting the cases in the ICUs or counting the bodies in the morgue. That is not the way to know something has gone wrong,” he said. “The way to know the disease is coming back is to have community-based surveillance, to be testing and to know that the problem is coming back and then be able to adjust your public health measures accordingly.”
