Speaker 2
that is example of a viris that did eventually become nendemic. And that was a very, very severe pandemic. Many, many millions of people died. And now the seasonal flues kill something like 600 n 50 thousand people a year, which is still pretty significant and not great. But scientists don't think that coronovirus is going down that route. I mean, perhaps that might happen, but not with that kind of devastating impact?
Speaker 1
No, i don't think so. I mean, ha, e influence of irises are quite rent from corona viruses. So that sort of one factor to keep in mind. We've had a number of flue pandemics in the last hundred years. I mean, 19 18 was particularly bad. And what happens is, is, these are new viruses that the population is completely naive to. So they are always going to have their kind of strongest, most devastating effect on a naive population. But overtime, these flue viruses continue to circulate and come into contact with more and more people who have immunity, and so then they just kind of develop this seasonal pattern. But, i mean, one thing to point out with flue viruses is that they evolve really quickly, which is the reason why you have to have a flue vaccine every year, is because the virus itself is very good at out manoeuvring our immune system. That might not be case with coronovirus. We've got these great vaccines for the coronovirus, which are really effective at preventing serious disease and death. So there's potential, we don't know yet, that these vaccines will need to be re made, particularly as new variants of the coronovirus emerge and circulate. But it's far from clear that, you know, these vaccines will need to be updated yearly, like the flue.