At a WHO coronavirus media briefing on December 28, 2020, several WHO experts spoke [1, 2, 3]
Head of the WHO emergencies program Dr Mike Ryan said:
“The likely scenario is the virus will become another endemic virus that will remain somewhat of a threat, but a very low-level threat in the context of an effective global vaccination program…
Dr Ryan warned the pandemic “is not necessarily the big one“, the next may be more severe. “This is a wake-up call…We live in an increasingly complex global society. These threats will continue.”
WHO chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan said:
…we continue to wait for more results from the vaccine trials, is to really understand if these vaccines, apart from preventing symptomatic disease and severe disease and deaths, whetherthey’re also going to reduce infections, or prevent people from getting infected with the virus, prevent them from passing it on or transmitting it to other people. At the moment, I don’t believe we have the evidence on any of the vaccines to be confident that it’s going to prevent people from actually getting the infection and therefore being able to pass it on. [pg 17], [1]
WHO Director General, Tedros said:
“Going forward, investing in health will be a priority for all countries.” He said “I think the world is understanding the centrality of health the hard way.”
Professor Heymann proclaimed
“it appears at present that the destiny of SARS Coronavirus 2 is to become endemic…[we will] learn to live with COVID-19.”