PITTSBURGH, Pa. (WPXI)— Dr. Amesh Adalja says not to expect COVID-19 to be completely eliminated. The Pittsburgh-based critical care and emergency medicine physician says having an “abstinence view” of COVID-19 just isn’t realistic. Dr. Adalja used this idea to write an opinion piece in the New York Daily News. Dr. Adalja says from the very early stages of COVID-19 it was clear to him that it would become an endemic virus — something we deal with every year. He says it’s really due to the virus itself. COVID-19 is a respiratory virus that spreads easily and efficiently in an animal host. Dr. Adalja says while COVID-19 won’t go away, the acute phase of the pandemic will not last forever. He says we are going to move into a position where COVID-19 is one of many viruses that causes infections, and that there will be a baseline number of cases, hospitalizations and even deaths. Adalja, a Butler native and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, has emerged as one of the most recognizable national experts on the pandemic. Since Americans first began hearing about coronavirus a year ago, Adalja has become a go-to guy for much of the national media. Now, he’s calling on the country and world to rethink mitigation measures.