the lifting of the health emergency by the WHO is not synonymous with the disappearance of the virus

2023-05-05 19:01:54

“It is with great hope that I declare that Covid-19 is no longer a health emergency of international concern. » Friday May 5, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director of the World Health Organization (WHO), raised the maximum alert on the Covid-19 pandemic. The latter also estimated that the health crisis had caused at least 20 million deaths.

For Professor Yves Buisson, epidemiologist and president of the Covid-19 cell of the National Academy of Medicine, this declaration is not premature. “We have seen the situation improving for some time now, not just here but on all continents. A few recombinant variants gave us some scares but in the end Omicron held the upper hand and the herd immunity we’ve talked about so much is finally here.” he rejoices, while raising that the end of a pandemic is always difficult to decree. “The entry into the epidemic was brutal, but the exit is a gradual phenomenon. It’s not a short whistle. »

Vaccination remains essential for the most vulnerable

Especially since the end of the health emergency is not synonymous with the disappearance of the virus. “Like the flu, Covid-19 is now a seasonal infection that requires vaccinating vulnerable people,” underlines the epidemiologist, however skeptical on the adhesion which the next campaigns will arouse. “Last fall, only a quarter of eligible people did the booster, even though it was bivalent vaccines offering better protection. The flu campaign itself has seen the numbers drop », he laments.

However, vaccination is an essential element for the situation to remain stable. “If we stopped vaccinating completely, the virus would continue to mutate and better resist the immune system. We would then risk ending up with a slower circulation, but which would generate more serious forms., warns Yannick Simonin, virologist at the University of Montpellier. If the Omicron variant, more contagious, worried the scientific community, it finally made it possible, in parallel with vaccination, to achieve collective immunity. “This is called mixed population immunity, because we have all been either vaccinated or infected. So we all had some form of protection.”continues the virologist, while recalling that this immunity is limited in time. “This is where vaccination must continue”he adds.

The big waves of contamination “behind us”

And now ? “We were ‘lucky’ that Covid-19 came from a family we knew. This allowed us to create vaccines quickly,” notes Yannick Simonin, hoping for the implementation of substantial means to anticipate the appearance of new viruses.

For his part, Daniel Floret, vice-president of the Technical Commission for Vaccinations at the High Authority for Health (HAS) invites the public authorities to remain on their guard. ” This sermake a big mistake to relax surveillance at the national level. We are no longer in a situation where restrictive means must be recommended, but we must remain able to restart this if the epidemiology changes”he relativizes.

At the National Academy of Medicine, Yves Buisson is more optimistic. “The virological surveillance and systematic sequencing carried out almost everywhere allow us to verify that Omicron remains indeed dominant. There will undoubtedly be upsurges here and there, especially in the fall, but the big waves are behind us,” concludes the epidemiologist.