- It’s highly unlikely that the United States, let alone the world, will be able to completely eliminate the coronavirus that causes Covid-19.
- “We have no idea whether we’re going to see that kind of seasonal pattern with SARS-CoV-2, but it does remind us that most of our respiratory viruses start behaving as seasonal events,” Monto said.
- “What we hope to get it at is such a low level that even though it isn’t completely eliminated, it doesn’t have a major impact on public health or on the way we run our lives,” Fauci said.
It’s quite doubtful that the United States, let alone the rest of the globe, will be able to eradicate the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 altogether as reported by CNN.
However, there will come a time when it is no longer a pandemic when cases are under control and hospitals aren’t at risk of overcrowding.
Many specialists believe that the spread of coronavirus will resemble that of seasonal influenza.
What is less obvious is how and when this will occur.
“It’s usually determined by what you need to do to contain the outbreak, “Monto remarked.
“What sets us apart is that our vaccines are far more effective than what we’re used to seeing.”
What is the future?
Monto and other public health officials believe that in the future, the globe will be able to follow the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, in the same manner, that seasonal flu is tracked.
“We don’t know if we’ll see that kind of seasonal pattern with SARS-CoV-2,” Monto said, “but it does remind us that most of our respiratory viruses start acting like seasonal occurrences.”
To understand what an endemic phase of the coronavirus would look like, we must “wait and see and hold our breath,” as Monto phrased it.
Endemic denotes that a disease is present in a population all of the time, but it does not afflict a vast number of people as a pandemic does.
“What we hope to get it at is such a low level that even though it isn’t completely eliminated, it doesn’t have a major impact on public health or on the way we run our lives,” Fauci said.
So much to be done
Dr Philip Landrigan, a paediatrician and epidemiologist at Boston College, says that in order to move from pandemic to endemic, the country must build up immunity to the coronavirus, which means that many more individuals must be vaccinated.
“These outbreaks normally occur when you have a cluster of people who are not inoculated in a particular location, and all of a sudden the virus gets introduced because a traveller has brought the virus in — and bang, you’ve got 20 cases of measles in some town,” Landrigan explained.
“For the time being, the CDC says there’s a lot of work to be done to curb the virus’s present spread.”
This is why, in an email to CNN last week, CDC spokesman Kristen Nordlund stated, “We’re advising everyone 5 years and older to get vaccinated to protect themselves against COVID-19.”
Flu is estimated to have killed between 12,000 and 52,000 people per year between 2010 and 2020, according to the CDC.
The question is, what will be our most useful measures in the future?
A picture of the future
The CDC works with health departments, laboratories, hospitals, and other healthcare organisations to track confirmed flu cases, establish which influenza viruses are circulating, and assess the impact of those viruses on hospitalizations and fatalities.
A similar tracking system may be used to monitor the coronavirus after it becomes endemic, according to one theory.
“We could handle the cases similar to how we handle seasonal flu,” said Dr Stephen Parodi, Kaiser Permanente’s national infectious disease leader. “We can say we know we’re going to see a number of cases in the winter season, and we can have the right staffing, we can have the right supplies ready, and we’re ready to handle it, as opposed to the surges that we’ve been dealing with here.”
What are the supply chains we’ll need to care for patients?
Even illness is unpredictably unpredictable, and doctors have seen a lot of flu throughout their careers.
As a result, we are familiar with their regular behaviour.
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Source: CNN
