Coronavirus ‘will be easier to eliminate than polio’

GLOBAL eradication of Covid-19 is more likely than it was for polio, according to experts from New Zealand.

Polio transmission has been slashed by 99 per cent since the late 1980s due to a global vaccination campaign, and children still get the polio jab today.

A group of five public health experts from three institutions in New Zealand wrote an article in the journal BMJ

Global Health on how likely it is that Covid-19 can be expunged.

The academics, led by Prof Nick Wilson, professor of public health at the University of Otago Wellington, argue that although there are some hefty obstacles in the way of Covid abolition, it remains feasible to achieve “the permanent reduction to zero of the worldwide incidence of infection caused by [Covid-19]”.

The virus would be easier to eradicate than polio because of several factors, including a global desire to fight Covid unlike anything seen before, the scientists said.

The authors added that mask wearing, social distancing, quarantine, border control and contact tracing were never in place for polio or smallpox, but have been widely adopted for Covid, therefore improving the likelihood of eradication.

♦jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s prime minister, is due to unveil plans this week to reopen the country’s borders after staff shortages put businesses and the public sector under pressure. Ms Ardern garnered global praise for containing local transmission of Covid-19 by imposing tough lockdowns. However, that tactic is now straining an economy heavily reliant on an immigrant workforce.