Covid is changing again after two years of infection and death. Omicron is spreading quicker than any other variety, but it is also proving to be less harmful. There’s rising speculation that the greatest epidemic of the century may soon be referred to as endemic.
Spain floated the notion this week when Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said it’s time to consider new long-term means of dealing with Covid, similar to how the rest of the globe deals with the flu. Other countries joined suit, claiming that the sickness was entering a new phase.
Health experts, however, are preaching caution, saying there’s too much uncertainty about how the virus will evolve, how much immunity society has built up and potential damage if care people stop being careful.
Governments will inevitably have to treat Covid as one of many manageable public health concerns, rather than as one that requires the urgency and concentration that has been committed since early 2020.
Lockdowns that harm the economy are no longer popular. Vaccines are shielding large swaths of the population, and there’s even optimism that omicron, with its rapid spread and weaker punch, would speed the pandemic’s end.
“We’re probably seeing a transition phase toward this becoming an endemic disease,” Spain’s deputy prime minister, Nadia Calvino, told Bloomberg Television. “But that doesn’t mean we have to stop being very cautious.”
“However, it does indicate that we should take actions that are significantly different from those we had to take two years ago.”
Governments aren’t the only ones hoping that 2022 will be the year that Covid is finally pushed to the back burner of public debate. A tired public is likewise ready to go away, and searches for the phrase “endemic” on the Internet have increased in recent weeks.
The phrase is commonly used to describe an illness that is only seen in a certain geographic area, however this does not have to be the case with Covid, just as the flu is known to transverse the globe on a regular basis. Seasonal trends can also occur, with more occurrences in the winter and local outbreaks that exceed the predicted average.
There are reasons to believe that the pandemic’s hold is lessening. From swift diagnostics to the capacity to update and mass produce vaccines, the globe now has more tools than ever before, as well as increased levels of immunity thanks to inoculation and early Covid outbreaks. While antibodies may decline or even fail to prevent infections from novel variations, T cells, the immune system’s second key weapon, appear to be capable of preventing catastrophic illness.
Meanwhile, several studies show that omicron is less harmful than prior strains. Aside from that, it looks to be burning out in some areas. After a spike in December, the incidence of new infections in South Africa is declining, while hospital admissions in the United Kingdom are leveling down.
Professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine David Heymann pointed to the United Kingdom as a good example of living with the virus this week, but he cautioned that there is no single timeframe for everyone because countries move at different speeds.
“We can’t predict where variants will appear, nor can we predict how virulent or transmissible they will be,” he added. “It has the potential to be a bumpy ride.” “We simply don’t know.”