Beginning of an end?

WhAT is the endpoint of our efforts against Covid-19? Dr Christine Tait-Burkard, an Edinburgh University authority on coronaviruses, believes ‘we are definitely at the beginning of this being an endemic disease’.

Covid, she contends, will become a seasonal virus like the winter flu, one that will ‘be with us for years to come’.

UK education secretary Nadhim Zahawi appears to be in the same camp. he thinks the time has come to shift to a five-day selfisolation period and says Britain can lead the world in learning to live with Covid.

Mr Zahawi, the former Vaccines Minister, said that the UK could treat future outbreaks more like colds and flu – describing Omicron as a ‘bump in the road’ out of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, SNP health secretary humza Yousaf has talked down the chances of a reduction in the self-isolation period in Scotland. It is difficult to envision how the new seven-day regime might function with a return to normal working practices.

In industries where most jobs cannot be done from home, routinely losing staff for seven days at a time will be trying.

Mr Yousaf sounds out of step with the emerging consensus on the virus, which says zero-Covid is unachievable and a new strategy must be found.

The end of the pandemic is not in sight, but we may at last be glimpsing the beginning of the end.