Is the COVID-19 pandemic's end in sight? "We're going to live with the virus," Dr. David Agus says
The director of the World Health Organization said this week that "the end is in sight" for the coronavirus pandemic. CBS News medical contributor Dr. David Agus said although he believes the U.S. is "at the end of the pandemic," COVID-19 is not necessarily "over."
"I do think COVID-19 is going to continue," Agus told "CBS Mornings" on Friday. "It is not going to be a pandemic that shuts things down. We're going to live with the virus. We're not going to hide from it. People are still going to get it."
The physician said booster shots and Pfizer's Paxlovid pill will help keep people from dying or being hospitalized from the virus.
"We're going to have to get used to testing when we feel sick and staying home," he said. "This is our regular cadence for the next couple years."
He encouraged people to become fully vaccinated against COVID if they haven't yet, adding that it is safe to mix booster doses and that doing so provides a "bump in immunity."
And with flu season approaching, Agus also urged people to get their flu shots.
"For two years — 40 million people normally get [the flu] a year — they didn't, so we have less immunity to the flu," he said.
He also pushed for more monkeypox vaccines to be provided to communities where the virus is spreading.
"It's still in this population of individuals, gay men predominantly," Agus said. "We need to get more vaccines to them, and if they do get it, we need to treat them because we have treatments that work, so monkeypox, unfortunately, it's spread like wildfire, but now it's getting under control."