The advent of a vaccine for the novel coronavirus will not eradicate the existence of the disease, a British scientist has said.
He made his statement while addressing the House of Common, adding that humanity would be living with the virus for “decades”.
It comes after the British prime minister said last week he hoped for a return to normality by Christmas.
But experts giving evidence to the cross-party group of MPs said it was important to be realistic that the virus would still be here.
Sir Jeremy, a member of Sage, the government advisory body, said the world would be living with Covid-19 for “very many, many years to come”.
“Things will not be done by Christmas. This infection is not going away, it’s now a human endemic infection.
“Even, actually, if we have a vaccine or very good treatments, humanity will still be living with this virus for very many, many years…. decades to come.”
