What Does the End of a Pandemic Look Like?
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Abstract:
March 23, 2021
What does the end of a pandemic look like?
Expert opinion varies as to how the current COVID-19 global pandemic will end. Many questions still lack answers.
Most public health experts argue that eradicating or eliminating the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 is no longer possible. The probability is that, even with broad vaccination programs, the virus will remain endemic (i.e., persisting at some level in the human population), if not globally, at least regionally.
Previously, only two viruses, the deadly smallpox virus and the rinderpest virus that causes disease in cattle, have been declared eradicated (i.e., removed from any presence in the general population and consigned to laboratories designed to house and study dangerous pathogens).
Sadly, the chances are very slim–virtually nonexistent–that the SARS-CoV-2 virus can be eradicated. Even if it were possible to vaccinate everyone, this would not eliminate the virus because of its zoonotic nature. Zoonotic viruses have an undiscovered animal reservoir that harbors the virus and allows it to exist, reproduce, and mutate outside the human body.
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