Covid pandemic should end next year if we can get through harsh winter, expert says

Covid pandemic should end next year if we can get through harsh winter, expert says

A public health expert has boosted hopes that the pandemic will be over next year – but warned of a “difficult” winter first.

Professor Linda Bauld warned more restrictions may be needed if a new variant emerges which “challenges” the existing vaccines.

But she said that “if we can get through” the winter, the pandemic in the UK should come to an end in 2022, just over two years after it started.

The scientist at Edinburgh University added it is hoped we will be “emerging from the pandemic which is an immediate risk to health to everybody in an area, to an endemic situation”.

Vaccine hesitancy among young people has decreased. In those aged 18 to 21, it almost halved from 9 per cent to 5 per cent.
Health officials hope it will translate into higher uptake of the jab.

The Office for National Statistics survey also showed hesitancy has fallen from 14 per cent to 11 per cent in people aged 16 and 17 – who only qualified for the jab last week.

The extension of the rollout means 1.4 million more teenagers are eligible for the first dose of the Pfizer jab, with advice on the second to come later.