Feature

LISELOTTE SABROE/RITZAU SCANPIX/AFP/GETTY

THE CORONAVIRUS
Children in Copenhagen play during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Endemic viruses are often first encountered in childhood.

WILL BECOME ENDEMIC

A Nature survey shows many scientists expect SARS-CoV-2 is here
to stay, but it could pose less danger over time. By Nicky Phillips

F
or much of the past year, life in Western beginning of the year after a security guard at than 100 immunologists, infectious-disease
Australia has been coronavirus-free. a hotel where visitors were quarantined tested researchers and virologists working on the coro-
Friends gathered in pubs; people positive for the virus. But the experience in navirus whether it could be eradicated. Almost
kissed and hugged their relatives; Western Australia has provided a glimpse into 90% of respondents think that the coronavirus
children went to school without tem- a life free from the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. If will become endemic — meaning that it will con-
perature checks or wearing masks. other regions, aided by vaccines, aimed for a tinue to circulate in pockets of the global popu-
The state maintained this envia- similar zero-COVID strategy, then could the lation for years to come (see 'Endemic future').
ble position only by placing heavy world hope to rid itself of the virus? “Eradicating this virus right now from the
restrictions on travel and imposing lockdowns It’s a beautiful dream but most scientists think world is a lot like trying to plan the construction
— some regions entered a snap lockdown at the it’s improbable. In January, Nature asked more of a stepping-stone pathway to the Moon.

382 | Nature | Vol 590 | 18 February 2021

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 It’s unrealistic,” says Michael Osterholm, an ENDEMIC FUTURE
epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota In a Nature poll, 89% of scientists felt that SARS-CoV-2 was either very likely or likely to become an endemic virus.
in Minneapolis. How likely do you think it is that SARS-CoV-2 will become an endemic virus:
But failure to eradicate the virus does not that is, one that continues to circulate in pockets of the global population?
Not enough
mean that death, illness or social isolation will Very likely Unlikely evidence to
continue on the scales seen so far. The future 60% 5 estimate 6
will depend heavily on the type of immunity
people acquire through infection or vaccination Likely Very unlikely
and how the virus evolves. Influenza and the 29 1
four human coronaviruses that cause common How likely do you think it is that SARS-CoV-2 can be eliminated from some regions?
SOURCE: NATURE SURVEY

colds are also endemic: but a combination of

annual vaccines and acquired immunity means
that societies tolerate the seasonal deaths and Very likely Likely Unlikely Very unlikely Not enough
illnesses they bring without requiring lock- 14% 25 35 17 evidence to
estimate 10
downs, masks and social distancing. 119 immunologists, infectious-disease researchers and virologists from 23 countries. Percentages do not add up to 100% because of rounding.

More than one-third of the respondents to

Nature’s survey thought that it would be possi- That defence wanes pretty quickly so it is not many people still susceptible, scientists still
ble to eliminate SARS-CoV-2 from some regions sufficient to block reinfection entirely, but it technically class it as in a pandemic phase. In
while it continued to circulate in others. In seems to protect adults from getting sick, says the endemic phase, the number of infections
zero-COVID regions there would be a contin- Lavine. Even in children, the first infection is becomes relatively constant across years, allow-
ual risk of disease outbreaks, but they could relatively mild. ing for occasional flare-ups, says Lavine.
be quenched quickly by herd immunity if most Whether immunity to SARS-CoV-2 will To reach this steady state could take a few
people had been vaccinated. “I guess COVID behave in the same way is so far unclear. A years or decades, depending on how quickly
will be eliminated from some countries, but large study of people who have had COVID-19 populations develop immunity, says Lavine.
with a continuing (and maybe seasonal) risk suggests that their levels of neutralizing anti- Allowing the virus to spread unchecked would
of reintroduction from places where vaccine bodies — which help to block reinfection — start be the fastest way to get to that point — but that
coverage and public-health measures have not to decline after around six to eight months2. would result in many millions of deaths. “That
been good enough,” says Christopher Dye, an But their bodies also make memory B cells, path has some huge costs,” she says. The most
epidemiologist at the University of Oxford, UK. which can manufacture antibodies if a new palatable path is through vaccination.
“The virus becoming endemic is likely, infection arises, and T cells that can eliminate
but the pattern that it will take is hard to virus-infected cells, says Daniela Weiskopf, an Vaccines and herd immunity
predict,” says Angela Rasmussen, a virologist immunologist at the La Jolla Institute for Immu- Countries that have begun distributing
from Georgetown University, who is based in nology in California, who co-authored the COVID-19 vaccines soon expect to see a
Seattle, Washington. This will determine the study. It’s yet to be established if this immune reduction in severe illness. But it will take
societal costs of SARS-CoV-2 for 5, 10 or even longer to see how effectively vaccines can
50 years in the future. reduce transmission. Data from clinical
trials suggest that vaccines that prevent
Childhood virus
Five years from now, when childcare centres call
The virus becoming symptomatic infection might also stop a
person from passing on the virus.
parents to tell them that their child has a runny endemic is likely, but If vaccines do block transmission — and if they
nose and a fever, the COVID-19 pandemic might
seem a distant memory. But there’s a chance the
the pattern that it will remain effective against newer variants of the
virus — it might be possible to eliminate the virus
virus that killed more than 1.5 million people in take is hard to predict.” in regions where enough people are vaccinated
2020 alone will be the culprit. so that they can protect those who are not,
This is one scenario that scientists foresee contributing to herd immunity. A vaccine that
for SARS-CoV-2. The virus sticks around, but memory can block viral reinfection — although is 90% effective at blocking transmission will
once people develop some immunity to it cases of reinfection have been recorded, and need to reach at least 55% of the population to
— either through natural infection or vacci- new viral variants might make them more achieve temporary herd immunity as long as
nation — they won’t come down with severe likely, they are still considered rare. some social distancing measures — such as face
symptoms. The virus would become a foe first Weiskopf and her colleagues are still tracking masks and many people working from home —
encountered in early childhood, when it typi- the immune memory of people infected with remain in place to keep transmission in check,
cally causes mild infection or none at all, says COVID-19 to see if it persists. If most people according to a model3 developed by Alexandra
Jennie Lavine, an infectious-disease researcher develop life-long immunity to the virus, either Hogan at Imperial College London and her col-
at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. through natural infection or vaccination, then leagues. (A vaccine would need to reach almost
Scientists consider this possible because the virus is unlikely to become endemic, she 67% of people to provide herd immunity if all
that’s how the four endemic coronaviruses, says. But immunity might wane after a year social distancing measures were lifted.) But if
called OC43, 229E, NL63 and HKU1, behave. At or two — and already there are hints that the the rate of transmission increases because of a
least three of these viruses have probably been virus can evolve to escape it. More than half the new variant, or if a vaccine is less effective than
circulating in human populations for hundreds scientists who responded to Nature’s survey 90% at blocking transmission, vaccine coverage
of years; two of them are responsible for roughly think waning immunity will be one of the main will need to be greater to blunt circulation.
15% of respiratory infections. Using data from drivers of the virus becoming endemic. Vaccinating even 55% of the population
previous studies, Lavine and her colleagues Because the virus has spread around the will be challenging in many countries. “The
developed a model that shows how most chil- world, it might seem that it could already be virus will stick around if parts of the world
dren first come down with these viruses before classed as endemic. But because infections don’t get vaccinated,” says Jeffrey Shaman,
the age of 6 and develop immunity to them1. continue to increase worldwide, and with so an infectious-disease researcher at Columbia

Nature | Vol 590 | 18 February 2021 | 383

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Feature
University in New York City. DRIVING FACTORS for measles has never needed to be updated
Even if the virus remains endemic in many Nature asked scientists to pick three of the because the virus has yet to evolve in ways that
regions, global travel will probably resume biggest factors that would drive SARS-CoV-2 evade the immune system.
circulation in people if it became endemic.
when severe infections are reduced to levels Measles is still endemic in parts of the
that health services can cope with, and when a Immune world with insufficient immunization. In
71
escape
high proportion of people who are vulnerable 2018, a global resurgence killed more than
to severe illness have been vaccinated, says Dye. Waning 140,000 people. A similar situation could
59
immunity
emerge with SARS-CoV-2 if people decline vac-
Similar to flu? Uneven vaccine
45 cines. A survey of more than 1,600 US citizens
distribution
The 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed found that more than one-quarter would
Vaccine
more than 50 million people, is the yardstick hesitancy
37 definitely or probably decline a COVID-19
by which all other pandemics are measured. vaccine, even if it were free and deemed safe
Lack of
It was sparked by a type of virus known as 29 (see go.nature.com/3a9b44s). “How successful
political will
influenza A, which originated in birds. Almost we are at addressing those concerns will deter-

SOURCE: NATURE SURVEY

Animal
all cases of influenza A since then, and all sub- 14 mine how many people get the vaccine and how
reservoirs
sequent flu pandemics, have been caused by many remain susceptible,” says Rasmussen.
descendants of the 1918 virus. These descend- Other 5
ants circulate the globe, infecting millions of Respondents who
Animal reservoirs
people each year. Flu pandemics occur when selected each factor (%) The future of SARS-CoV-2 will also depend on
populations are naive to a virus; by the time whether it establishes itself in a wild animal
a pandemic virus becomes seasonal, much show that the endemic coronavirus 229E has population. Several diseases brought under
of the population has some immunity to it. evolved so that neutralizing antibodies in the control persist because animal reservoirs, such
Seasonal flu still has a significant toll globally, blood of people infected with the viral variant as insects, provide chances for pathogens to
claiming roughly 650,000 lives per year. circulating in the late 1980s and early 1990s spill back into people. These include yellow
Jesse Bloom, an evolutionary biologist at are much less effective against more recent fever, Ebola and chikungunya virus.
the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center variants. People are reinfected with 229E SARS-CoV-2 probably originated in bats, but
in Seattle, thinks the coronavirus might follow over their lifetime, and Bloom suspects that it might have passed to people through an inter-
a similar path. “I do think SARS-CoV-2 will it might be harder to stave off the variants mediate host. The virus can readily infect many
become a less serious problem and something that have evolved to escape previous immu- animals, including cats, rabbits and hamsters.
like flu,” he says. Shaman and others say the nity. But scientists don’t know whether these It is particularly infectious in mink, and mass
virus could also settle into a seasonal pattern reinfections are associated with worse symp- outbreaks on mink farms in Denmark and the
of annual winter outbreaks similar to flu. toms. “I would expect that over many years, Netherlands have led to huge animal culls. The
Flu seems to evolve much faster than accumulated mutations to SARS-CoV-2 will virus has also passed between minks and people.
SARS-CoV-2, allowing it to sneak past the more completely erode neutralizing antibody If it became established in a wild-animal popula-
immune system’s defences. This feature is why immunity as we saw for CoV-229E, although I tion and could spill back into people, it would be
flu vaccines need to be reformulated each year; can’t say for sure how the rates will compare very difficult to control, says Osterholm. “There
that might not be needed for SARS-CoV-2. among the two coronaviruses,” says Bloom. is no disease in the history of humankind that
Still, the coronavirus might be able to dodge Bloom thinks it’s probable that SARS-CoV-2 has disappeared from the face of the Earth when
immunity acquired by infection, and possibly vaccines will need to be updated, possibly zoonotic disease was such an important part of,
outsmart vaccines. Already, laboratory studies every year. But even then, immunity from or played a role in, the transmission,” he says.
show that neutralizing antibodies in the blood either past vaccination or infection will prob- The path that SARS-CoV-2 might take to
of people who have had COVID-19 are less capa- ably blunt serious disease, he says. And Lavine become an endemic virus is challenging to
ble of recognizing a viral variant first identified notes that even if people are reinfected, this predict, but society does have some control
in South Africa (called 501Y.V2), than variants might not be a big deal. With the endemic coro- over it. In the next year or two, countries can
that circulated earlier in the pandemic4. That naviruses, frequent reinfections seem to boost reduce transmission with control measures
is probably because of mutations in the virus’s immunity against related variants and typically until enough people have been vaccinated
spike protein, which vaccines target. Trial people experience only mild symptoms, she either to achieve herd immunity or to dras-
results suggest that some vaccines might be says. But it is possible that vaccines won’t stop tically reduce the severity of infections. That
less effective against 501Y.V2 than against other some people developing severe symptoms, would significantly reduce deaths and severe
variants, and some vaccine makers are explor- in which case the virus will continue to be a disease, says Osterholm. But if countries aban-
ing redesigns of their products. significant burden on society, says Shaman. don strategies to reduce spread and let the
Still, the immune system has lots of tricks up virus reign unchecked then “the darkest days
its sleeve, and can respond to many features Measles-like virus of the pandemic are still ahead of us”, he says.
of the virus, not just spike, says Lavine. “The If SARS-CoV-2 vaccines block infection and
virus is probably going to have to go through transmission for life, the virus might become Nicky Phillips is Nature’s Asia-Pacific bureau
lots of mutations to make a vaccine ineffective,” something akin to measles. “It’s probably chief.
she says. Preliminary trial results also suggest less likely [than other scenarios] but it’s still
that vaccines can protect people with 501Y.V2 possible,” says Shaman. 1. Lavine, J. S, Bjornstad, O. N. & Antia, R. Science https://
doi.org/10.1126/science.abe6522 (2021).
against severe disease, says Rasmussen. With a highly effective measles vaccine —
2. Dan, J. M. et al. Science 371, eabf4063 (2021).
More than 70% of the researchers surveyed two doses and a person is protected for life 3. Hogan, A. B. et al. Report 33: Modelling the Allocation and
by Nature think that immune escape will be — the measles virus has been eliminated in Impact of a COVID-19 Vaccine Imperial College London
another driver of the virus’s continuing circu- many parts of the world. Before a vaccine was Report https://doi.org/10.25561/82822 (2020).
4. Cele, S. et al. Preprint at medRxiv https://doi.
lation (see 'Driving factors'). This would not be developed in 1963, major epidemics killed
org/10.1101/2021.01.26.21250224 (2021).
a first for a human coronavirus. In a study5 yet about 2.6 million people, mostly children, a 5. Eguia, R. et al. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.
to be peer reviewed, Bloom and his colleagues year. Unlike flu vaccines, the immunization org/10.1101/2020.12.17.423313 (2020).

384 | Nature | Vol 590 | 18 February 2021

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