"People oppose pandemic and endemic but endemic malaria kills hundreds of thousands of people, HIV is endemic, violence is endemic in our cities," said Dr. Michael Ryan during a virtual panel of the World Economic Forum ( WEF).
"Endemic in itself doesn't mean it's good, endemic just means it's there forever," he said.
The arrival of Omicron, which is much more contagious than all other variants of Covid-19 but appears to cause less severe symptoms for those vaccinated, has launched the debate on the passage of the pandemic, declared at the beginning of 2020, to an endemic form. A debate that generally implies that it will be less dangerous.
"We will not get rid of the virus this year," the official warned. "We may never eradicate the virus. Viruses that cause pandemics tend to be part of the ecosystem."
"What we can end is the public health emergency of international concern (WHO's highest level of alert, editor's note)", he explained, adding that it was necessary “achieve the lowest possible incidence rate with a maximum of vaccinations so that no one has to die”.
“It will be the end of the emergency and it will be the end of the pandemic,” Mr Ryan insisted.
The head of the organization also raised the possibility that in the future three or four injections will be considered the normal number of doses to escape the most severe forms of Covid.
With the exception of Johnson and Johnson's vaccine, all vaccines are recommended with two doses first, but the third booster or "booster" dose is strongly advised since Omicron took the world by storm.
A man gets vaccinated against Covid-19 at the Humboldt Forum museum in Berlin, January 18, 2022 John MACDOUGALL AFP
"We will no longer call (these injections) boosters. We will just consider that three or four doses are necessary to create this durable and robust immunity which protects you from hospitalization and death over a long period of time", a- he pointed out.
© 2022 AFP