Experts say COVID eradication ‘not likely’ without a vaccine

ELIMINATING all traces of COVID-19 is not a viable option for Queensland, health experts say.

The State Government in the early months of the pandemic declared its strategy to flatten the curve, which would ease pressure on hospitals and eventually result in several days of zero new cases.

Queenslanders were then urged by the Premier to “keep this up” for a “period of weeks” when the state reached zero cases for the first time in more than 40 days back in April.

The national approach remains suppression, contrary to countries like New Zealand who have advocated for eradication.

But Queenslanders and the world alike will have to learn to live with the deadly virus that has killed over half a million people until a vaccine becomes available, according to experts.

Griffith University Institute for Glycomics Professor Johnson Mak said eradication was not possible unless every person decided to live in isolation.

“Flattening the curve slows things down to buy us time, which leads to more manageable ICU,” he said. “Society’s collective perception of ‘acceptable risk’ will change as we move forward.”

Griffith University Infectious Diseases and Immunology Professor Nigel McMillan said people would, in reality, have to wait for a vaccine to become available.

“Total eradication is not likely … we will have to learn to live with this virus,” he said.

However, Griffith University infectious diseases Professor Yaoqi Zhou said he would support eradication given it was successful in several other countries. “It would be hard to keep the curve flattened if you are not aiming for eradication,” he said.