IF Covid 19 became chronic to rodents and could pass from them to humans we'd be in a world of hurt.
How would that be worse than now? It's already as infectious as the common cold, which is pretty much unstoppable.
Mark
There is no sure way of getting rid of any disease that rats carry. You could kill 99.9% of the rat population of a city and the whole cycle would start up again in months. Rats are everywhere and can get into anything.
Many years ago a truck loading dock of an old factory nearby collapsed opening up a basement similar to the one in the Stephen King novel "Graveyard Shift". Thousands of rats poured out of there like water out of a hose infesting the entire neighborhood including a High School and Grade School.
Very large Rats began showing up in my home a couple of weeks later.
Turned out they had climbed into a bush next to my kitchen outer wall and tunneled through siding and thick plywood to gain entry.
They did so much damage to pipes and wiring I had to replace the entire kitchen floor, joists and all, replumb everything, replace half the drywall and send my dishwasher to the dump. Later I had to replace the bathroom floor as well.
Look up Hanta Virus outbreaks in New York and of course the Black Death, the later required the burning down of most of London during the outbreak of 1666.