Do you think COVID will become like the flu with new strains each year and new vaccines that vary in their effectiveness?

That seems to be the prediction I’ve been reading.

Either antibodies reduction over time or variants. So a boosters every year are possible.

That is just what I was thinking.

Yes. I heard of one man whose Covid 19 had evolved 20 times while he had it.

No. And it would be really bad for that to happen.

So far Covid is a more stable virus, and all current vaccines are effective against all the major strains out there. There’s a good chance of eradication with mass vaccination combined with lockdowns and social distancing measures.

^^^ So then yes, it will become like the flu with new strains each year and new vaccines that vary in their effectiveness, because there’s no way we’ll have successful lockdowns and social distancing measures. They haven’t been successful yet, why would that change?

The rest of the world maybe able to deal with lockdowns and . . . . . have limited deaths . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . but not the GOOD OLD USA !

^ We haven’t tried a lockdown yet. We don’t have a political party that supports this.

It kind of already is. “Coronavirus” doesn’t describe the SARS-CoV-2 virus; coronaviruses are a category of viruses that have been circulating for a long time. SARS (SARS-CoV-1) and MERS were two very deadly coronaviruses that spread uncontrolled for a while but eventually died off for the most part. There are lots and lots of mild coronaviruses that cause the common cold.

We can’t get rid of it like smallpox or what we are trying to do with polio, because it jumped from an animal and we can’t kill all the animals that harbor it. Plus, smallpox and polio are more stable virus, they don’t keep mutating like flu and coronavirus.

Whether we need yearly shots I guess will depend on how lethal the strains are that are flying around, and how long our immunity lasts from the vaccinations to begin with. So far the vaccines still work against the mutations from what they can tell. If the vaccine works well even against the mutations then it could be more like measles where we just have outbreaks now and then.

Covid19 seems like it’s going to be endemic in the US at least for a while, but in other countries it barely exists or doesn’t exist at all. I can’t help but wonder what international travel is going to be like in the future.

@smudges Sure. It’s possible that the USA becomes permanent biological weapon, spreading new forms of Covid that’s allowed to evolve into resistant strains every year, because nothing is being done to control it.

Before that point, I would hope that the rest of the world blocks all trade and travel with such a reckless state.

@Kropotkin Agreed, but unfortunately I don’t hold out hope that your last sentence would ever occur.

@JLeslie Covid19 seems like it’s going to be endemic in the US at least for a while, but in other countries it barely exists or doesn’t exist at all.

According to https://www.endcoronavirus.org/countries, regarding which countries are “winning” and which are “nearly there”, there are less than 30 in each category. Alternatively, 83 countries “need to take action”. Updated today.