1/ Good long-sighted stuff from SAGE member and Wellcome head @JeremyFarrar today on #COVIDー19 :

“My belief is that this is now an endemic human infection... it is likely that this is here with the human race for the future.'

2/ “We’re right to focus on the here and now, but we've got to have a longer term strategy, so that we can avoid those future waves, and also make sure that we're as prepared as possible with the true exit strategy.

3/ "That’s not just further lockdowns and physical distancing. Those buy you time, they may reduce the peak, but they're not true exit strategy. ...

4/ The only way forward, is to invest, to invest at scale, at risk, and in parallel rather than in sequence, in all that it is going to take for the world to have treatments and vaccines available.

5/ "It's enlightened self-interest that we push all of these treatments and vaccines forward, that we commit at the start to make them available, independent of people's ability to pay... wherever you are.

6/ “This will not come cheap, it will require billions and billions of dollars to do this. It will require alignment across countries... the WHO, the World Bank, governments, philanthropy, scientists, industry in an unprecedented approach to make this happen.

7/ Right now, as a seed, to start this off, we believe there's a funding gap still of about $8 billion.”