When will we finally be free of the coronavirus? According to the World Health Organisation, clearly not for a while. In a press conference that was held on Friday 21st August, the head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, explained that:
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We hope to finish this pandemic before less than two years.
He also added that overcoming this pandemic requires 'global solidarity'.
Especially if we can pool our efforts together […] with utilising the available tools to the maximum and hoping that we can have additional tools like a vaccine, I think we can finish it in a shorter time than the 1918 flu.
The 1918 flu lasted for two years and killed 50 million people and so far, COVID-19 has claimed nearly 800,000 lives worldwide.
But that’s not all, the WHO has also claimed that due to globalisation, ‘the virus has a better chance of spreading, it can move fast’. However, we now have ‘the technology and knowledge to stop it’ and fight back against the disease. So, will we be forced to live with COVID-19 until 2022?