We can’t expect COVID-19 to go away; we should plan accordingly

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://ourfiniteworld.com/2021/04/11/we-cant-expect-covid-19-to-go-away-we-should-plan-accordingly/

Can the world achieve “herd immunity” with respect to COVID-19? Anthony Fauci has said that 80% of the population needs to be vaccinated in order to reach herd immunity. My view is that using vaccines is unlikely to achieve this result, something I discussed in my August 2020 post, We Need to Change Our COVID-19 Strategy. Now, the news arm of the prestigious journal Nature has published a similar view: Five reasons why COVID herd immunity is probably impossible.

In this post, I explain why, in my view, COVID-19 seems likely to become endemic, like the flu. The vaccines won’t be enough to make it go away completely. I will also look at the issue of how we should respond to the almost certain cases of COVID-19 that we will experience in the future.