Covid19 ishere to stay

THE EDITOR: I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings. Do not shoot the messenger. Comprehend the message.

Covid19 is here to stay forever. There will always be infected people. It will be more of a problem in poorer countries like TT. Why?

There is no method for exterminating the virus. Is is not self-limiting. It infects people of all ages. There are no cures for virus-caused diseases. There are only treatments for the symptoms.

Read again and again:

* This virus is easily transmitted from person to person.

* Asymtomatic people are transmitting it to healthy people.

* It is currently virulent in 184 countries even though these countries are in different climatic zones.

* One vaccine may not necessarily offer permanent immunity. We may need to have a vaccine every six or 12 months for it.

Currently we have to have a vaccine every year against the flu.

* SARS, the virus that caused the 2002-2003 pandemic, is still with us and killing people. We still have no vaccine for it.

* MERS-CoV, the virus that caused the pandemic around 2012, is still around and killing people.

* There are four different human coronaviruses that cause the common cold.

Covid19 is here to stay with us forever and ever.

AV RAMPERSAD

Princes Town