Healthcare workers wearing protective gear are preparing to care for patients at the Portimao Arena sports pavilion converted into a Covid-19 patient field hospital in Portimao, Algarve region, on February 9, 2021. ( Photo of PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA / AFP (Photo of PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA / AFP via Getty Images)
PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA | AFP | Getty Images
LONDON – A growing heart of doctors and public health officials has warned that even with the mass deployment of safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines, the disease could become endemic.
Dr. Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House coronavirus advisor, Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel, and the executive director of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Program, Dr. Mike Ryan, they have said that in recent weeks the coronavirus will never go away.
To date, more than 107 million people worldwide have contracted Covid-19, with 2.36 million deaths, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
David Heymann, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, had warned that the virus appeared endemic late last year. He reaffirmed his position earlier this week during a webinar for the Chatham House think tank.
“I think if you talk to most epidemiologists and most public health workers, they would say today that they believe this disease will become endemic, at least in the short term and most likely in the long term,” he said.
Heymann is the chair of the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Infectious Risks and led the Health Agency’s Infectious Diseases Unit during the SARS epidemic in 2002-2003.
We need to learn lessons from 2020 and act quickly. Every day counts.
Dr. Jeremy Farrar
Director of Wellcome
He warned that it was not yet possible to be sure of the fate of the virus, as its outcome depends on many unknown factors.
“Right now, the emphasis is on saving lives, which it should be, and on making sure hospitals aren’t overloaded with patients with Covid, and that will be possible going forward,” said Heymann, who cited the deployment. Covid vaccine mass.
“We need to learn lessons from 2020”
Mass delivery of Covid vaccines began in many high-income countries almost two months ago and has since picked up pace, but mass vaccination of populations will take time.
Certainly, some low-income countries have not yet received a single dose of vaccine to protect people at higher risk for coronavirus.
A doctor takes notes during a training session given by Chinese doctors and medical experts through a teleconference in Maputo, Mozambique, on May 21, 2020. Chinese obstetricians and pediatricians share their experience with Mozambican doctors on the prevention and treatment of Covid-19 among pregnant women. women and children through a teleconference at Maputo Central Hospital.
Nie Zuguo | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images
A report released by the Economist Intelligence Unit last month projected that most of the adult population of advanced economies would be vaccinated by the middle of next year. However, this chronology extends to early 2023 for many middle-income countries and even to 2024 for some low-income countries.
It underscores the scope of the challenge of controlling the worldwide pandemic.
“Covid-19 is an endemic human infection. The scientific reality is that with so many people infected around the world, the virus will continue to mutate,” said Dr Jeremy Farrar, director of Wellcome and a member of the British scientific group. Emergency Advisory Group (Sage).
“Living with this virus does not mean, however, that we cannot control it. We must learn lessons from 2020 and act quickly. Every day counts,” he added.
Balancing our lives with endemic diseases
“I think it’s good to put this in context and think about the other infectious diseases that are endemic today,” Heymann said during an online event on Wednesday, when asked if policymakers should consider others. endemic diseases in response to the covida pandemic.
He cited tuberculosis and HIV, as well as four endemic coronaviruses that are known to cause the common cold.
“We have learned to live with all these infections, we have learned to do our own risk assessments. We have vaccines for some, we have therapeutics for others, we have diagnostic tests that can help us all do a better job of living with these infections “.
There are a couple of unknowns that make it very difficult for political leaders and public health leaders to make decisions about what the best strategies would be, inducing the fact that we don’t fully understand the ‘long Covid’ and its impact. or its incidence even after much smaller infections, “he continued.
“So it’s not about this being a special disease. This is one of many with which we have to balance our lives and understand how to deal with it like we do the flu, like we do with other infections,” Heymann said. dit.
A nurse (R) checks a computer with the hospital’s director, Dr. Yutaka Kobayashi, in the coronavirus room of Sakura General Hospital on February 10, 2021 in Oguchi, Japan. The hospital, like many others in Japan, has seen a steady stream of patients with Covid-19 coronavirus over the past year as the country faces the ongoing viral pandemic.
Carl Court | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The term “long covid” refers to patients who suffer from prolonged illness after initially contracting the virus, with symptoms that include shortness of breath, migraines, and chronic fatigue.
Public discourse on the pandemic has largely focused on those with a serious or fatal illness, while ongoing medical problems as a result of the virus are often underestimated or misunderstood.
Last month, Covid’s largest long-term study to date found that many of those suffering from the ongoing disease after the virus infection had been unable to return to work at full capacity six months later.