Bloomberg: Pandemic to End in 7 Years

Dina Faisal

Health

12th February 2021

Bloomberg’s methodology is fairly transparent(Getty).

The Claim

COVID-19 is expected to end after 7 years.

News posted on

Emerging story

Social media users and news sources are circulating an article by Bloomberg in which they claim that the Coronavirus pandemic will end in 7 years and that life will then return to normal.

Bloomberg made the prediction using the basis that the path to immunity is an average of 75% vaccination according to Anthony Fauci, they then built the biggest database of global Covid-19 vaccinations with more than 119 million doses administered worldwide.

Bloomberg’s Vaccine Tracker “uses the most recent rolling average of vaccinations, which means that as vaccination numbers pick up, the time needed to hit the 75% threshold will fall.”

The calculations are based on the current two doses required for full vaccinations. Given their real-time data, 75% will be reached in 7 years, this is because although some countries are fast on track to reaching the threshold such as Israel and the United Arab Emirates, two-thirds of countries are yet to begin vaccination programs.

Misbar’s Analysis

Misbar investigations found that Bloomberg’s methodology is fairly transparent, accessible, and uses sound research, supported by their experience in data and analytics.

According to the news agency, “the projections are updated daily and are based on the average daily vaccinations in data gathered from 67 countries and the U.S. states and territories” adding new data as collected.

Bloomberg is a highly reliable and credible source and therefore, given all these factors Misbar concludes the claim is true. Bloomberg further takes into account volatilities that may slow down vaccinations such as blizzards, as well as collective defense or herd immunity mentioning that it may occur before 75% vaccination levels.

They also explain that since the data is in real-time the prediction may change when new developments occur.

These can therefore affect the speed of vaccinations and the number of years may change. The Vaccine Tracker Calculator is the latest feature from Bloomberg’s COVID-19 tracker.