On Tuesday, Top US Infectious disease official Dr Anthony Fauci stated that it is possible for COVID-19 to be reduced to an endemic illness from the current health emergency next year if the country ramps vaccination rates. Booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccines are vital for reaching that point. Experts believe COVID-19 cannot be eliminated and will likely become endemic, meaning it will always be present in the population to some degree, such as the flu or chickenpox.
Fauci stated, “To me, if you want to get to endemic, you have got to get the level of infection so low that it does not have an impact on society, on your life, on your economy. People will still get infected. People might still get hospitalised but the level would be so low that we don’t think about it all the time and it does not influence what we do.” He added that if the US makes boosters available for everyone, it is possible the country can get control of the virus by spring of 2022.
