Jeremy Farrar, a world-renowned clinical scientist and leading figure in infectious diseases, has told members of the UK parliament that the new coronavirus will disappear.
COVID-19 is likely to exist in the coming “decades,” Jeremy Farrar, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies and Director of the Wellcome Trust, told British MPs on Tuesday.
“Things will be done until Christmas,” Farrar said, as he addressed the House of Commons Health and Social Assistance Committee. “Even if we have a very smart vaccine or treatment, humanity will continue to live with the virus for many, many years to come.
This contrasts with what UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced last Friday, saying the whole country foresees a “significant return to normality” over Christmas.
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“I sincerely and sincerely hope that we will review the notable restrictions and allow for a greater return to normal from November at the earliest, perhaps in time for Christmas,” Johnson said.
John Bell, professor of regius at Oxford University, told Politico that “the truth is that this virus will be with us forever.” He’s coming and going.
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The United Kingdom, one of the countries most affected by the virus, has slowly reopened, while implementing new accompanying social estrangement measures, such as the imposition of masks on and off public transport, but not in offices.
With a death toll of 45507 as of July 21, according to data from Johns Hopkins, the UK has the highest number of COVID-19 deaths in Europe and one of the highest in the world. The UK has been one of the countries that has put in place some of the maximum and strict lockout measures in reaction to the virus.
Scientists at the University of Oxford announced this week that an experimental coronavirus vaccine has shown promise to help induce a protective immune reaction in many other people who have been vaccinated.
Scientists said they discovered that their experimental COVID-19 vaccine produced a dual immune reaction in other people over 18 to 55 that lasted at least two months after immunization, according to a study published in The Lancet.
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“We are seeing an immune reaction almost all over the world,” said Dr Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford. “What this vaccine does well is cause any of the arms of the immune system,” he said.
Hill said the vaccine is designed to lessen disease and transmission. It uses an innocent virus, a bloodless chimpanzee virus, designed not to spread, to bring the complex coronavirus protein to the body, causing an immune response.
“This has already been done in 19 other infectious diseases to expand vaccines and drugs and is very likely to happen with COVID-19 as well,” he said.
Associated Press and FOX News contributed to the report.