Is Covid really over? WHO’s announcement sounds more like surrender than victory

Although the acute phase of the pandemic may have passed, experts agree that the virus's effects will remain profound

The global public emergency caused by Covid-19 may be officially over but the pandemic will still be with us for many years. Nor is it clear that governments have learned sufficiently from the outbreak to be ready to fight off new emerging microbes that could trigger worse calamities.

These are the stark conclusions of scientists reacting to last week's news that the World Health Organization (WHO) no longer considers Covid-19 - which has killed more than 7 million people over the past three years - to be a public health emergency of international concern.