Five-year struggle – Noor Hisham wants people to adapt

CORONAVIRUS | As efforts to stem the Covid-19 pandemic drags on, Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah signalled that people would have to adapt to the new norms of the long haul.

This comes after World Health Organisation (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said it could take the world four to five years to rein in the pandemic.

“We need to lead in societal, behavioural changes to learn how to live with Covid-19 for a long, long time.

“We need to adapt to the new norms to survive and comply with the SOP. The WHO announced yesterday it might be a long haul of five years – an unprecedented challenge in difficult times,” he said on Twitter today.

Yesterday, Soumya reportedly outlined a number of factors that would determine how long and to what extent Covid-19 would remain a threat.

This includes whether it mutates, what containment measures are put in place, and whether an effective vaccine is developed.

“I would say in a four to five-year timeframe we could be looking at controlling this,” Financial Times quoted her as saying, adding that the situation could potentially get worse.

She said a vaccine still appears to be the best exit strategy, but there are many caveats that may affect whether this is successful.

These pertain questions on the vaccine’s safety and efficacy, as well as its production and equitable distribution.

If the virus that causes Covid-19 changes, the vaccine could stop working, she said.

Separately, WHO emergencies expert Dr Mike Ryan had warned that Covid-19 could become an endemic disease like HIV, and warned against any attempt to predict how long it would keep circulating.

Instead, he urged for a “massive effort” to counter its spread.

“It is important to put this on the table: this virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities, and this virus may never go away.

“I think it is important we are realistic and I don’t think anyone can predict when this disease will disappear.

“I think there are no promises in this and there are no dates. This disease may settle into a long problem, or it may not be,” he said.

For the record, a new vaccine typically takes about a decade to develop. The fastest development timeline for the approval of a new vaccine was for an Ebola vaccine, which took five years.

However, the WHO has mobilised resources in hopes of having a Covid-19 vaccine ready in 12 to 18 months, and some research groups are trying new techniques to meet the challenge.

According to the scientific journal Nature, there are 115 Covid-19 vaccine candidates in development as of April 8. Of these, five have already entered the first stages of human testing. - Mkini