She said that was among the reasons she believes it will be some time before the world moves from pandemic to endemic COVID-19. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease specialist at New York University. "You still have a lot of people who are susceptible" because they are not yet vaccinated, said Dr. Many experts believe this second line of defense will prevent hospitalizations and deaths. Immune system T cells, which destroy infected cells, also appear still to be able to recognize the variant. Blood test results from fully vaccinated people show Omicron has learned to escape neutralization a booster dose might restore that protection. So far, most of the studies looking at the effectiveness of vaccines against Omicron have focused on neutralizing antibodies, which latch on to the virus and prevent it from entering and infecting cells. David Dowdy, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins. And that immunity is more effective against serious illness than it is against getting infected at all," said Dr. "Even if that immunity is not as good against Omicron, it doesn't mean that it's worthless. More than 270 million people have been infected with COVID, according to the World Health Organization, while an estimated 57% of the global population has received at least one vaccine dose, representing potential protection that did not exist two years ago. Some scientists are not entirely ready to abandon hope that some parts of the world will emerge from the pandemic next year. "You need to recognize that at certain times, it's going to be safer to do things than at other times." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Tom Frieden, chief executive of Resolve to Save Lives, a global public health initiative, and former director of the U.S. Instead, people will need to be ready to adjust when the next variant comes along, said Dr. But living with COVID-19 does not mean the virus is no longer a threat. The hope is that the virus diminishes to the point where it is no longer disruptive. "A lot of people haven't come to terms with that." Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. "There's always going to be a baseline number of COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths," said Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.Įven after COVID becomes a more endemic disease, new variants will spawn outbreaks and seasonal surges for years to come.
"People are sick of the pandemic and God knows I am, but unless we can get some urgency to compel our leaders to take action, I really see 2022 being a lot of more of the same that we saw in 2021," said Dr. While it is not quite back to square one, much more of the world will need to be vaccinated or exposed to COVID to get past the worst of the pandemic, disease experts told Reuters. ‘Don’t forget, in times of difficulty Mrs Thatcher had state spending running very, very high as a proportion of GDP because of the economic difficulties the country was in,’ he said.Already, countries are reverting to measures used earlier in the pandemic: restricting travel, reimposing mask requirements, advising against large gatherings for the winter holidays. The prime minister said Thatcher would have taken the same approach to the virus crisis. The government is estimated to have spent as much as £410 billion on its Covid response since March 2020. The prime minister also invoked Margaret Thatcher, saying that she would have dealt with the pandemic ‘exactly’ like him. Mr Johnson said the country is in a phase in which the virus is ‘losing its potency’ thanks to the vaccine rollout. I’m not going to take any options off the table. ‘I’ve got to be absolutely frank with you, there could be a new variant more deadly, there could be a variant that affects children, that we really need to contain.
‘I think it would be irresponsible of any leader in any democracy to say that they’re going to rule out something that can save lives. The prime minister has not ruled out another lockdown (Picture: PA)
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