Virus may never go away but could change into mild annoyance

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Experts say it’s likely that some version of the Covid-19 disease will linger for years. But what it will look like in the future is less clear.

Eventually, the virus known as Sars-CoV-2 will become yet “another animal in the zoo”, joining the many other infectious diseases that humanity has learned to live with, predicted Dr T Jacob John, who studies viruses and was at the helm of India’s efforts to tackle polio and HIV/AIDS.

“Very commonly the descendants of flu pandemics become the milder seasonal flu viruses we experience for many years,” said Stephen Morse, who studies viruses at Columbia University.

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