The meaning of the words of the American immunologist Anthony Fauci, according to which «Omicron will eventually find everyone». Will the virus become endemic? Not everyone will get sick and not everyone will get infected in a few months. Immunity will be temporary
The World Health Organization said over 50% of Europeans could be infected with Omicron in the next six to eight weeks. “In the first week of 2022, Europe recorded over seven million cases,” said the WHO European director, Hans Kluge. According to Anthony Fauci, immunologist and pandemic adviser for Biden, “Omicron will eventually find everyone” thanks to its unprecedented degree of transmissibility. The vaccinated also “will probably be infected, including those on the third dose, but they will not end up in hospital and will not die.” According to the American immunologist Sars-CoV- we are facing a transition period with the pandemic.
1 – Will we all get sick from Covid?
With a trend of the curves in a phase that is still pandemic, like the current one, many people will be infected. “However, even in the most terrible pandemics – he explains Paolo Bonanni, epidemiologist – it has never happened that the entire population has been affected within a few months. It is plausible that the coronavirus will become endemic over time and it is clear that, similar to the viruses we live with, such as flu and colds, sooner or later it will touch us in life. But it doesn’t necessarily happen now, it can happen even in five or seven years “. “We’re not all going to get sick now – the immunologist agrees Antonella Viola – but over the years we will all come into contact with the virus, but not everyone will get sick ».
2 – If our destiny is to become infected sooner or later what is the use of wearing a mask?
«Given the high contagiousness of Omicron the mask helps to avoid infecting us all at the same time. In a society, essential services must work: we cannot afford to have no more doctors and nurses in hospital, garbage collectors or train drivers driving trains “he warns Fabrizio Pregliasco, virologist and medical director of the Galeazzi Institute in Milan.
3 – Can Omicron be treated like a flu?
The Spanish premier Pedro Sanchez
proposes to treat Covid as a normal flu since the increase in cases is not followed by that of deaths, arguing that it is no longer necessary to trace and confine anyone who tests positive and the time has come to pass from a picture of “pandemic” to one of “endemic disease” as is precisely the seasonal flu. However, WHO warned against treating the latest wave of Covid as a seasonal flu as much still remains unknown of the new variant, in particular with regard to the severity of the disease which could affect areas with low vaccination rates such as some parts of Eastern Europe. “We are not yet ready to consider Covid as an influence. It could be done if we were all vaccinated but even in this case there would always be the risk of mutations that break the protection and put stress on the health system “he adds Antonella Viola, who is also a professor of general pathology at the University of Padua.
4 – Does it make sense to continue swabs at this stage?
«We make a lot of efforts with tampons and quarantines – he reflects Paolo Bonanni, who is also full professor of Hygiene at the University of Florence – but this does not lead to a particularly high added value in terms of prevention. Better to focus on vaccinations and swab only symptomatic ones also because today the prevention services are not able to trace and take charge of everyone. Doing so many tampons is like stopping the waves with your hands: we must be realistic and deal with the strength we have ».
5 – When will the epidemic curve slow down?
“It is unthinkable that it will continue to remain on these high numbers because susceptible people would still be lacking. With the data we have at the most by the end of January, but probably even earlier, the contagion curve will begin to decline», Bonanni foresees.
6 – Will we all become immune then?
«Only temporarily»Holds Antonella Viola. “We have already seen that re-infections are possible especially if the virus changes, as happened with Omicron.” “Immunity wanes over time but I expect that between vaccines and infections we will have a substrate of basic immunity – he adds Bonanni – and for some time we will be at least partially protected, with a reduction in complications and mortality ».
7 – What will happen in the coming winters?
“We will have winter epidemics of Covid such as influenza and Syncitial Respiratory Virus even if, given its high contagiousness, with more cases than the flu” he says Bonanni who warns: “We will live with it, certainly not without a price. Let us remember that in the pre-pandemic era each year we counted between eight and ten thousand deaths directly related to the flu. With vaccines, we will be able to drastically reduce the damage caused by Covid, even if not completely cancel it ».
8 – Can we do something more to have a better winter next year?
“Expanding the infectious disease and resuscitation wards. Increase the diagnostic system. And work on vaccines that overcome the variant problem ”, he concludes Viola.
January 13, 2022 (change January 13, 2022 | 08:58)
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