"Achieving higher levels of population immunity globally, either through infection and/or vaccination, may limit the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on morbidity and mortality, but there is little doubt that this virus will remain a permanently established pathogen in humans and animals for the foreseeable future. As such, long-term public health action is critically needed," the committee said in the statement.
"While eliminating this virus from human and animal reservoirs is highly unlikely, mitigation of its devastating impact on morbidity and mortality is achievable and should continue to be a prioritized goal."
In a list of temporary recommendations, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said countries should continue vaccinating people and incorporate Covid-19 shots into routine care; improve disease surveillance; maintain a strong health care system to avoid "a panic-neglect cycle"; continue to fight misinformation; and adjust international travel measures based on risk assessment.
The United States has already set out how it will transition out of its state of emergency. President Joe Biden intends to end the Covid-19 national and public health emergencies on May 11, the White House said Monday. Biden renewed the emergency declaration last month, for what is now expected to be the final time.
The end of the emergency would also mean the end of many pandemic-era benefits. Most Americans covered by Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance plans have been able to obtain Covid-19 tests and vaccines at no cost during the pandemic.
Once the emergency ends, people on Medicare will generally face out-of-pocket costs for at-home testing and all treatment.
However, vaccines will continue to be covered at no cost.
Vaccines will soon become simpler, too. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) vaccine advisers voted unanimously Thursday to update all Covid-19 vaccines so they contain the same ingredients as the two-strain shots that are now used as booster doses.
The decision aims to harmonize vaccinations and streamline the process, as the FDA hopes that Americans will eventually be able to get an updated Covid-19 shot once a year, the same way they do for the flu.
Currently, the US offers two types of vaccines. The first teaches the immune system to fight off the original version of the Covid-19 virus. The second focuses on more recent Omicron subvariants.
The advisory committee heard testimony and data suggesting that the complexity of having two types of Covid-19 vaccines and schedules for different age groups may be one of the reasons for low vaccine uptake in the US.
IN OTHER NEWS
- Lunar New Year celebrations in China are often dubbed "the world's largest human migration." For the first time since the pandemic began, hundreds of millions traveled from abroad and across the country to celebrate with friends and family. This flurry of movement sparked fear among experts, who have warned of a Covid "tsunami" in China's rural areas, where the population has less access to healthcare than in the cities. CNN's Selina Wang went into Dali village, in Guizhou province, to see whether the latest wave of infections had already passed through rural China. Read her full report here.
- Students "lost out on about 35% of a normal school year's worth of learning" when in-person classes stopped during the pandemic, according to a paper published Monday in the journal Human Nature Behavior. The researchers analyzed data from 42 studies across 15 countries, including the United Kingdom and United States. "Children still have not recovered the learning that they lost out on at the start of the pandemic," said Bastian Betthäuser, an author of the paper and a researcher at Sciences Po Centre for Research on Social Inequalities in France and the University of Oxford in the UK. Betthäuser also noted that children from disadvantaged backgrounds were disproportionately affected by the school closures. "The learning crisis is an equality crisis," he said.
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