A virus expert says coronavirus is not likely to go away, but vaccines mean we will be able to live with it in a similar way to flu.
Professor Peter Horby tell Andrew Marr the early signs from vaccination are "very encouraging" and people should not feel like they need to "hide under the duvet".
"We've got these vaccines, they're being rolled out they're absolutely critical," he says.
"There's now three approved in the UK and - although there are some concerns and we have to be very vigilant that the new viruses don't escape immunity from the vaccine so far - the data we have is encouraging that the vaccines work just as well."
He says every virus mutates to create different strains but vaccines are updated to keep up with them.
"When there's a lot of immunity in the population, whether that's a vaccine or natural, we will see viruses emerge that escape that immunity.
"In the longer term, that will happen and we we will have to update that vaccine.
"But we do that every year with influenza so I don't think that's going to be a problem in the short term."
He says scientists do not yet know how long immunity lasts and therefore how often the population will need to be re-vaccinated.
He says: "The one virus we've managed to get rid of, smallpox, had very different characteristics to this virus... this one will not go away.
"I think we are going to have to live with it... it may well become more of an endemic.
"It will be with us all the time and may cause some seasonal pressures and some excess deaths but will not cause the huge disruption that we are seeing now."
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2021-01-10 10:00:38Z
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