COVID-19: Part of the World’s Future
Aylward has almost 30 years of experience in fighting Ebola, polio and other epidemics. He has seen firsthand the methods of Beijing's response on the coronavirus at its peak. Today, he shares his observation with the government and WHO response team assigned to work against the pandemic.
During a teleconference interview with a news publisher, Alyward shared how he thinks he has an idea as to how the pandemic can be stopped as well as to how the virus may act in the future.
Will COVID-19 continuously spread?
According to Dr. Bruce Aylward, senior advisor to the Director General of World Health Organization, the best way for the world to understand how the virus will behave in the future is by looking into the places it has infected, not infected, and the place it originated.
China identified the virus early January and since then the Asian giant had a full on response, and now, China thinks they will be able to get rid of the virus by the end of March.
Currently, Europe, the Middle East, North America, and some parts of Southeast Asia continue to experience an increase in the number of coronavirus cases. These continents still have months of work to win the battle against the pandemic.
Moreover, Africa and other parts of Indian subcontinent have recently been affected by the pandemic. Though they have low counts of cases, there is no doubt that they are also set to see an exponential growth.
Six months from now, how will the pandemic look?
Dr. Aylward expects to see other types of diseases surface in the world in the coming months. However, since the flu season is coming, he thinks the world will most likely see a surge of the pandemic.
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Will COVID-19 ever disappear?
It is likely that we will continue to experience waves of the pandemic unless a change is observed in the southern hemisphere.
The question now is: Will the virus completely disappear? Will the world experience waves of the virus? Or is the world going to face a low endemic disease instead?
As much as everyone wishes the virus to be totally gone, it is unlikely. The virus can be transmitted easily so we will most likely face small waves of coronavirus.
As long as we continue to do the testing, isolate people who tested positive, we should be able to keep the numbers down at a minimum. Big shut down measures may help but once they are taken away, the virus may just come back in waves.
China is already preparing for the worst. As the number of infected goes down, the government is building beds, buying ventilators because they want to make sure they are able to run the country and not be stuck in the same situation they were months back.
Every country is vulnerable. Low-income countries that do not have medical capacity, like Africa, will not be able to sustain a fight against this virus. The situation will be difficult.
This is the most serious disease you will face in your lifetime. We are a part of a broader community; we are a part of the transmission chain. Never underestimate a new disease.
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