When will there be a Covid-19 cure?

Biotechnology drugs like the ones under development for Covid-19 tend to cost tens of thousands per course.

A technician cultivates lung cells as he preps for research into the infectivity of the SARS-CoV-2 in human lungs at a laboratory at the University of Hong Kong, China. Picture: Bloomberg

A global push is on to develop a vaccine to slow the spread of Covid-19, and experts hope several will be ready in 2021. Yet even with one, the coronavirus is likely to remain with us for years, demanding long efforts to find a cure for those who still fall sick.

In humanity’s millennia-long struggle against viruses, prevention with vaccines has been far more successful than treatment with drugs. In fact, modern medicine has come up with a true cure for only one viral infection. For many serious infections, the best approaches are a cocktail of drugs that throw speed bumps in front of the infection.