Within 10 years, Covid-19 could be no more deadly than the common cold. Most of us will have developed natural immunity by then and symptoms will be no worse than coughs and sniffles.
Researchers from the University of Utah came up with this optimistic scenario after they ran computer models on the way our immune system will adapt to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19.
They liken the trajectory of Covid-19 to the virus that caused the Russian flu epidemic of 1889, which killed around 1 million people. Although that virus is still around, it’s now just a cold virus.
And the same will happen with Covid-19 as more people are exposed to small doses of the virus. Eventually, mild infections will win out, partly because severe infections may kill the host. “In the beginning of the pandemic, no one had seen the virus before; our immune system was not prepared,” said researcher Fred Adler.
(Source: Viruses, 2021; 13: 854)
