Could COVID-19 become endemic?
It’s likely SARS-CoV-2 is here to stay, health experts say.
“It appears as though this virus is likely to remain endemic in populations at least for several years, possibly indefinitely,” Tosh said.
A January study found that the virus “could join the ranks of mild, cold-causing … human coronaviruses in the long run,” according to Emory University and Penn State University scientists.
The model,
published in the peer-reviewed journal Science, compares SARS-CoV-2 to four common cold coronaviruses plus the SARS and MERS viruses, which surfaced in 2003 and 2012, respectively.
Researchers determined from the model that if the novel coronavirus continues to circulate in the general population and most people are exposed to it from childhood, it could be added to the list of common colds.