Welcome to the inquiry on the BBC World Service. Each week one question, four

expert witnesses and an answer.

New students are starting at universities in many countries around the world,

but this year it's different.

Lectures are online, students are being told to stay in their rooms.

If they have a few friends over to visit them, they could even end up with a fine.

But is this fair?

COVID-19 is a deadly virus, but not really for the young or even the middle-aged.

Can, or should we keep the world locked down until a vaccine or a cure comes to the rescue?

In this week's inquiry we're asking, should we learn to live with COVID-19.

Chapter 1, a tailored approach.

In due course we will have to come to terms with the fact that this disease will become endemic. Our first expert witness is Raj Bo-Pau-Pal,

emeritus professor of public health in the Usher Institute at the University of

Edinburgh. He says that in the months to come we will need to accept the virus as part of life.

And it will become like perhaps a more severe form of influenza, that kind of disease, which will be with us for some time.

Raj is one of a band of voices who thinks that even if a vaccine becomes available in the next

few months, immunization presents

formidable logistical challenges and is by no means an overnight solution to

stopping the virus in its tracks.

I think we've got to a stage where we have begun to appreciate that despite our best efforts,

we are not going to be able to suppress it completely and we now have to learn how to live with it.

So we're beginning a journey and we're beginning to understand how long that journey is going to be.

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