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Many countries rely on vaccines to build sufficient immunity in their populations so that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, is not able to find enough people to infect, causing transmission to stop. But even in countries where a high proportion of people have received highly effective vaccines, it is not clear if it is possible to achieve the so-called collective immunity threshold soon. Researchers warn that the virus is likely to circulate among us for some time. long, even if he is likely to become a less powerful enemy.
No. Until now, only one human disease – smallpox – has been officially eradicated; that is, reduced to zero cases and held there for the long term without continual countermeasures. It was thanks to a good vaccine and the fact that humans are the only mammals naturally susceptible to infection with smallpox virus. In contrast, many species are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, including bats, mink, cats and gorillas. The next best thing would be what’s called elimination of the disease. This is when there is zero new cases in a defined area over an extended period, such as 28 days. Some countries, like New Zealand, have not recorded any new cases for long periods of time using diligent closures, detection and isolation of cases and border closures. But maintaining this in the long term is difficult because the emergence of more infectious variants leads to even stricter public health and social measures, while people crave a return to normal life.
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