COVID-19 is "so successful" that it will never be eradicated, a virus expert has claimed, as fears of a second spike continue to grow.
Professor David Robertson, head of viral genomics and bioinformatics at the University of Glasgow, believes the highly infectious respiratory infection is "almost uncontrollable".
"It is so transmissible, it's so successful, we're so susceptible, that actually it's a little bit of a red herring to worry about it getting worse, because it couldn't be much worse at the moment in terms of the numbers of cases," he told the House of Lords Science and Technology committee on Tuesday.
"If you contrast with Ebola, which has very high virulence, kills many, many people, it makes it very controllable and you can very readily identify the infected people.
"Whereas this virus is infecting so many people with asymptomatic to mild symptoms that it's almost uncontrollable.
"I think we have to be clear that we're not going to be able to eradicate this virus."
Professor Robertson said the virus will "settle into the human population" and will become a "normal virus" in several years' time.
It comes as new The Independent Care Group (ICG) gave a "cautious welcome" to the new ONS figures, but fears there could be a second spike in coronavirus cases.
The weekly ONS update added almost 10,000 more COVID-19 fatalities to the Department of Health's official count, which stood at 34,796 as of Monday.
Chairman Mike Padgham said: "Today's figures, allied to those of the previous weeks, do give us some cautious optimism that we are getting past the worst of coronavirus.
"However, we are still fearful that the relaxation of some of the lockdown measures might send figures up again and create a second spike."
He added: "The government still has questions to answer because PPE and testing is still a serious issue for many providers as they cope with COVID-19."
John Edmunds, professor of infectious disease modelling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said it was "potentially bad news" for hopes that humans could develop a long-term immunity to the virus after the study of other coronaviruses.
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He told the House of Lords Science and Technology committee: "You can see that antibody decline over time from survivors of SARS.
"So after a couple of years, their antibodies have declined quite significantly."
He explained that as with other coronaviruses, including ones that cause the common cold, humans do not seem to have particularly "long-term immunity", allowing them to get reinfected later.
"So that's potentially bad news for us, that immunity may not last that long against this virus", he added.
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2020-05-19 15:02:00Z
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