According to the Houston Chronicle, “While some countries are experiencing a rapid decline in cases, it is unclear how smoothly their decline is in others. Some places may continue to experience a rise in cases even after the initial peaks or plateaus. However, from The unusual spread of omicrons is likely to have important consequences for the future of the epidemic.By infecting large numbers of people quickly, they quickly generate immunity, and this is important to make COVID-19 a more manageable disease, because layers of immunity may provide protection against future waves and mutant. It’s little relief for people who are very ill or worse during this winter, but it does mean that after the Omicron wave, things will be different.”
And the newspaper continued, “Omicron has spread at a record pace and the consequences have been dire for the overwhelmed health care system. With the infection of older age groups, things may deteriorate further, but the situation is still much better than if people did not already have some immunity to Covid. Data from Scientists in Britain and South Africa have concluded that the more experience people’s immune systems have in dealing with the Corona virus, the better their protection. Our immune systems “see” the thorny proteins on the outside of the coronavirus, which is the target of all vaccines used, they get better at responding to them. The infection becomes less severe, on average, over time not just because the virus is changing, but because our bodies are getting better at dealing with it.” .
According to the newspaper, “Nothing guarantees that this pattern will continue. Immunity can wane and the virus can evolve to evade protection. But all the evidence scientists have seen so far is that protection against severe disease continues. If this continues, the next round of infection may be weakened.” virus (and there will be a next round), which means the effect will be less significant for healthcare. Some of that effect is already in play. You may have heard that omicron is less severe than delta. That seems to be true, but once you factor in the role of immunity in disease prevention It’s likely that the gap between cases and deaths during the Omicron outbreak in the US and elsewhere is due to the protection that we have put in our bodies from previous immunity. People in South Africa, for example, likely suffered from disease less serious than omicron because many have delta. Not everyone is equally protected. While immunity acquired from previous infections is useful for preventing disease in the future, it is not as beneficial as if combined with vaccination. Especially the non-immune who are not immune to the virus, the omicron mutant can still cause severe disease. There are a large number of unvaccinated people in the United States. The number of Americans who have received booster injections is also much lower than they should be, especially for older, vulnerable people. The situation in the United States may appear to be worse than in countries such as Britain, in part because of this.”
And the newspaper continued, “To simplify matters more, compare recent mortality data in Britain with data for the state of Massachusetts. Britain’s population is about 10 times the state’s population. Britain reports a death rate of about 260 cases per day due to Covid-19 and the numbers are likely to increase. Massachusetts reports about 50 deaths a day, which means the state’s death rate per capita is twice the number of Britain’s.The immunity Omicron will leave behind could be a big step toward making Covid a manageable disease by providing more protection against the mutations that can We see it in the future.But omicron-induced immunity won’t make the virus go extinct.Pandemics don’t end with the virus being defeated, a display of sticky tape and a banner proclaiming “Mission Accomplished.” Instead of the virus disappearing, the nature of the disease it causes changes to the point where people consider it to be a tolerable risk. People will disagree about what that means.”
The newspaper concluded, “No one should assert with confidence that omicron indicates the end of the epidemic, but we must be confident that future mutations of infection, whether with omicron or any mutant that comes after it, will make fewer of us seriously ill than he would have. Before. This does not mean that the incidence of serious disease is the only metric that matters. The devastation that Omicron has produced is not trivial – we are witnessing its effects in overcrowded hospitals and closed schools. The days may be much better. But as the world has learned over the past two years, fools Only those with short memories make promises in the event of a pandemic.”