Europeans eye endemic light at end of pandemic tunnel

This week, German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach told his country that it was the right time to start thinking about the COVID-19 pandemic in a different way. “When we have this [surge] behind us … we can start opening again, step by step,” he told local media. “It’s correct to envisage this now.” The German politician, who is a professor of epidemiology, is not the only European official making this call. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has already spoken about his plan to begin treating the coronavirus more like the flu. Spain would “have to learn to live with it, as we do with many other viruses”, he said.