I agree with >100 of my colleagues that SARS-CoV-2 is on the way to becoming endemic, meaning it never stops circulating. But just because elimination is unlikely doesn’t mean we are doomed to an eternal pandemic. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00396-2

Lots of pathogens are endemic, including the 4 common cold CoVs. Just because we can’t eliminate them completely doesn’t mean we can’t control the public health impact.

With SARS-CoV-2, we can in the short term by reducing transmission and in the long term through vaccination.

I think that headlines proclaiming that the virus is “here to stay” are misleading in that they imply living the way we are now will last forever. That’s not the case (and @nickyphillips_ is a thoughtful reporter and I never got the impression she was fearmongering when we spoke)

Why?

Vaccines.

They greatly reduce disease. If most of us get vaccinated, we will no longer be at risk of severe COVID even if the virus is still around.

The reality is that those who choose not to be vaccinated will be at higher risk.

So the moral of the story is that if you are opposed or reluctant to get vaccinated, ask whatever questions you need and seek whatever information you are missing to get comfortable with it. I—along with many of my colleagues—are here for you.

Seriously. No matter what your concerns are about vaccines—how big or small—I’ll take them seriously and address them. So will many of my colleagues.

The data is clear: vaccines work. We should all take them. But we are also all human and it’s normal to have concerns.

So lay them out. What do you need to know about vaccines to get you to take one? Because if the viruses is here to stay, that’s how we are going to be able to live with it, and I mean that literally. Vaccines are how we keep endemic SARS-CoV-2 from killing us and our loved ones.

If the *virus* is here to stay. Sorry, it’s early here, I can’t type, and I haven’t had my coffee yet.