Majority Of Americans Think Covid-19 Is Here To Stay, Poll Finds

According to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, most Americans think Covid-19 is here to stay, even as infections around the world remain high.

According to a poll conducted January 13-18 among 1,161 U.S. adults, the vast majority of Americans will consider the Pandemic over when Covid-19 is a mild illness like seasonal flu.

When the disease has been largely eliminated, just 15% said they will consider the Pandemic over.

A majority of people think it's important to get a vaccine for life to get back to normal, though a third of parents think it's important for their children.

A majority of people think that vaccines are not important for getting lives back to normal, or at least not important at all.

The poll found that booster shots for adults are essential in getting life back to normal, though studies show two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine offer little protection against the omicron variant.

The end of the Pandemic does not mean the end of Covid-19. High rates of omicron infections, which reached record levels in many countries around the world, combined with relatively low levels of hospitalization and deaths than previous versions, has renewed discussion on learning to live with the virus rather than eliminating it. The debate centered on treating Covid-19 as a more stable and predictable illness like seasonal flu. The World Health Organization warns that an approach like this is premature and that stress doesn't mean the virus is not dangerous. Malaria and HIV can kill hundreds of millions of people a year and are endemic in many countries. 1.5 million people were killed by Tuberculosis in 2020, making it the second biggest infectious killer.

There is a shift in the policy. There have been lower levels of hospitalization and deaths from the omicron virus compared to previous versions. Spain, the U.K., and France are among the countries that are considering policy shifts to remove restrictions and acknowledge that the virus is a fact of daily life.

The Infographic is about endemic vs pandemic diseases.

The endemic doesn't mean harmless.

Will the virus be over the year? The AP-NORC poll shows that most Americans don't think so.

Live updates on the coronaviruses.