Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children‘s Hospital of Philadelphia, concurred, adding that he is also „not sure we‘re ever going to really eliminate this virus. … It‘s not like measles, where you get life-long sterilizing immunity.“

But even if the virus sticks around, new vaccines and new drugs to fight the virus mean it‘s unlikely to cause severe illness in the future. Offit predicts „that eventually, it will cause fewer deaths than influenza.“