Will we have an upper-hand in this arms race with SARS-CoV-2?

'In over a decade, COVID-19 would become like another common cold' infers a team led by Prof. Fred Adler at the University of Utah in the US. The study published in the Journal Viruses uses mathematical models incorporating evidence on the body's immune response to SARS-CoV-2. Analysis over a wide range of scenarios demonstarte an increasing proportion of population becoming predisposed to mild disease over the long term. This is in fact due to the enhanced immune response over subsequent infections and not just because the viral mutations itself. Ergo, the study suggest an increased probability for mild infections to persist as the population itself achieve better immune response overtime, reducing the impact of a fatal infection. The study also suggests a similar trend for a non-fatal human CoV causing common cold that was once responsible for the 'Russian flu' in the late nineteenth century. In addition to that, the authors also hinted at the possibility for an even fatal outbreak later in future especially if a deadly variant gets fixed in the population via possible immune evasion; however unlikely the event seems.

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