Peter Piot is director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. His CV describes him as the discoverer of the Ebola virus and a past expert for the United Nations on the Aids virus HIV.
Last year Piot succumbed to SARS-CoV-2 himself. He survived, although it took six months to recover and left behind heart problems.
“I believe this virus becomes endemic even after vaccination of the majority of the population,” he told the GVA. “Thanks to the vaccines, few people will die or end up in hospital unless very dangerous variants emerge regularly that make the vaccines less effective. Also, let us not forget that we have been able to eradicate only one virus that affects humans: smallpox.”
“The world will not be quite the same after this crisis. We are probably going to have outbreaks now and then, maybe every winter.”
