Moderna CEO just made this chilling prediction on COVID

While we have other pandemics to base our predictions on, in many ways COVID has shown itself unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Nonetheless, countless experts have made predictions about our future with the virus. Most recently, the CEO of Moderna Stephane Bancel made a chilling prediction about the coronavirus: He thinks COVID will be with us “forever”, becoming an endemic disease. For a glimpse into the future of COVID, keep reading, and to learn more about battling the virus, these 3 things could prevent almost any case of COVID, study finds.

CNBC reports that during a panel discussion at the JPMorgan Healthcare conference on January 13, Bancel shared his vision for the future of COVID. “SARS-CoV-2 will not go away,” Bancel said. “We are going to live with this virus, we think, forever.” Experts call it “endemic,” which means the virus is still present and circulating at low levels, but only occasionally causes serious illness. And for better prediction of the future, COVID will be “considerably better” by that date, says an FDA official.

A study published in Science Jan. 12 created a model to help predict the trajectory of COVID. According to the study, “once the endemic phase is reached and the primary exposure is in childhood, CoV-2 may not be more virulent than the common cold.” Although the virus currently poses a significant threat, researchers are confident that it will ultimately be largely harmless, with the exception of one emerging strain that causes severe illness in children.

COVID is currently wreaking so much havoc because it is a foreign pathogen that very few people are immune to. Once the majority of people are vaccinated or exposed to the virus, COVID is likely to become an endemic disease. And for more up-to-date information, sign up for our daily newsletter.

The protection against the virus necessary to make it endemic will be provided mainly by vaccination. Bancel has said he predicts that the United States will be one of the first major countries to receive “sufficient protection” from COVID.

Vaccines distributed in the United States currently have very high efficacy rates. However, Bancel said officials will need to be vigilant for new strains of the virus so scientists can create vaccines in response to these variants. And to learn more about the coronavirus vaccine, Dr Fauci just gave this warning about the side effects of the COVID vaccine.

COVID will not be the first endemic coronavirus swirling around the population. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) names four common coronaviruses that regularly infect people, giving them mild symptoms. And to learn more about the spread of this particular coronavirus, the CDC says that if you’re that age, you’re now more likely to catch COVID.