Learning to live with endemic COVID-19

This paper provides solutions in coping with the overwhelming surges of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths associated with the Delta variant. The socioeconomic and health impacts of extremes in decision making are now driving national leaders towards a path of learning to live with COVID-19. This does not mean complacency, which only serves to increase global inequities. Flexibility is required to adjust as the situation changes, which is vital as the possibility remains that humanity will encounter a variant that is more contagious, more virulent, and unresponsive to current vaccines. To cope with this possibility, according to the authors, nations and communities need well-resourced, well-structured, and well-integrated options for living with COVID-19. The warning signs are clear and national leaders must ensure we move through this pandemic without creating additional, unnecessary, long-term generational damage to health systems and economies.

Learning to live with the virus is increasingly being seen as the only way forward and the new normal. Integrated options for achieving this are outlined based on the following topics among others:

• Healthcare;
• Prevention;
• Population health;
• Education.