The campaign to beat the pandemic
Infectious diseases that we have learned NOT to live with in the UK – Factsheet
There is much misinformation about how infectious diseases such as Covid-19 are controlled. Examples include “Smallpox is the only infectious disease that has been eliminated”, or “There is no credible way to eliminate Covid-19”, and “We have to learn to live with Covid.”
This factsheet by the Zero Covid science team gives details of some of the infectious diseases that we have not learned to live with in the UK.
In the past, people in the UK did not accept that they had to learn to live with cholera, measles, polio, plague, rabies, SARS, smallpox, tuberculosis or typhoid – they looked at the possibilities of control and elimination. The idea that that we have to learn to live with high levels of Covid-19 needs to be challenged.
No one is safe until everyone is safe.