MOSCOW, January 4. /TASS/. The current COVID-19 pandemic will transform into seasonal epidemics starting from 2022, the president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Alexander Sergeyev, told TASS on Monday.

"I expect that the COVID-19 pandemic will turn into seasonal epidemics, like flu. I should say that the current situation looks pretty much like the 1960s, when the Hong Kong flu epidemic had very serious effects, when many people were seriously ill. But vaccines and medicines were created in due time and we have been living with flu for 60 years now and got almost accustomed to it. What is happening to COVID today looks similar in some respects. A serious epidemic, fears, creation of vaccines and the development of medicines. If there are good, reliable medication protocols, we will begin to see this illness like ordinary flu," he said.

Sergeyev remarked that Russia’s high mortality rates were the price that had to be paid for low vaccination rates.

"It is our flaw, for which the people, the scientists and the authorities are responsible as far as vaccination is concerned. An overwhelming majority of those who died from the virus had not been vaccinated. I believe that this is the price that has to be paid for low vaccination rates," he said.