Flu expert: The new coronavirus will always be with us

photo: AFP/NOBEASTSOFIERCE/SCIENCE PHOTOLI

This may not be a topic many people are talking about right now, but New Zealand still has more than 1,500 new coronavirus infections per week and three or four deaths per day.

The virus is spreading in 84 countries; Dozens of athletes have been infected with the virus at the Olympics.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is worried about dangerous new variants. It’s a warning we’ve heard before – and it comes as vaccination rates fall around the world.

New Zealander Dr Richard Webby is an infectious disease researcher at the internationally renowned St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. He developed the 1997 Hong Kong avian flu vaccine and is director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Influenza Research.

He told Sunday morning‘s Jim Mora said COVID is now endemic.

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“The word ‘endemic’ — (and) if you ask 100 different scientists what that word means, you’ll get 99 different answers — but to me, it means that this virus is here to stay now. It’s going to be with us forever.”

It’s still a potentially deadly disease, Webby said.

“It’s probably going to have a slightly smaller impact than it did in the first few waves of the virus – the immunity in the population is probably stronger now than it was earlier.

“But you know, I would say over the last two or three years, it hasn’t actually dropped that much. It’s maintained a level of pathogenicity that’s a little surprising to me.”

As with any infectious disease, the elderly and those with underlying health conditions are most at risk, he said.

“It’s those people who are the most immune-compromised … who are more susceptible to infection. So whether it’s COVID-19, whether it’s influenza, whether it’s … you name it, any viral illness.

“What we’re seeing with this virus is the same thing we’ve seen with all the other viruses, and unfortunately, these are the populations that always have bad luck.”

Scientists initially thought the coronavirus would be a winter disease, given the peak season for illnesses, but that turned out not to be the case.

“We do seem to be continuing to have COVID outbreaks in the summer. Influenza is now back on track as a winter illness, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) – another of those three diseases – is also more common in the winter, but doesn’t necessarily overlap with the flu season.

“We usually associate winter with colds. Maybe that’s no longer the case. We have to put up with colds and runny noses in the summer, too.”