Living with Covid is not an option in New Zealand – we need near universal vaccination | John Donne Potter, Graham Le Gros and Rod Jackson

Allowing the virus to become endemic would mean the regular closure of schools and businesses and thousands of deaths each year

As New Zealand switches from elimination to suppression, those who argue that Covid-19 will become endemic and part of our lives either do not understand or ignore what this would actually mean.

Elimination has always been a tricky word because it implies eradication. But we have only ever eradicated one human disease - smallpox - and are close with several others.