International health expert and physician Dr. Kees Rietveld worries that instead of a fast exit from COVID we are entering a twilight scenario of Long COVID. We recently published his opinion piece, in which he makes the case that we might be looking at years, not months, before something resembling “normal” is once again actually our normal.

No one—except maybe big pharma—has had a good 12 months, as the pandemic devastated lives, economies, and social order. We all hope that 2021 will see the end of the nightmare, with vaccines spreading around the world. But what if the holy grail of global vaccination is too slow and too incomplete? What if the fast mutating virus evolves in ways that requires boosters or annual jabs long before most people have had their first?

Remember “We are all in this together?” and “No one is safe until all are safe?” Really?

On 23 February, the Tällberg Foundation hosted a conversation about these and other questions with a group of invited participants.