International news: Omicron to be endemic epidemiologists' say

Research copy - Omicron variant

A great debate has sprung the world over looking at the end for Omicron variant as well as Covid-19 pandemic. Epidemiologists' say Covid and Omicron will be endemic.

An endemic may exist in a population but does not necessarily affect large number of people and destroy society as compared to a pandemic.

Mark Woodhouse is a professor for infections disease epidemiology, University of Edinburgh said that, "Don't expect Covid to fully disappear in any of our lifetimes. Instead, it will eventually reach a period similar to several other illnesses, where most people will be infected".

"That's the situation we're heading towards. Omicron is another dose of virus. We will all be on average less susceptible to disease having had that dose, or having had the vaccine", he said.

According to Heyman, he said, "A pandemic has various components to it in various countries. I think countries will become endemic at different rates."

A researcher in public attitudes and behaviors towards Covid-19 at Swansea University, told CNN that, "Levels of concern about Omicron tend to be lower than with previous variants," Simon Williams, 

For many, "the 'fear factor of Covid' is lower," he said.

Simon Williams continued and said that Omicron's severity compared to previous variants, and the perceived likelihood that individuals will eventually be infected, have contributed to the relaxation in people's mindsets. "This has even caused some people to actively seek out the illness to "get it over with", he strongly warned.

Some within the scientific community are cautiously optimistic that Omicron could be the pandemic's last act, providing huge swathes of the world with "a layer of immunity," and moving us closer to an endemic stage when Covid-19 is comparable to seasonal illnesses like the cold or flu.

Covid-19 has changed with great unpredictability, and the variant that superseded Delta could have been more sinister, experts say, but the world ultimately got a dominant strain that is sweeping through populations with ease, without causing the same degree of hospitalizations, severe illnesses and deaths that previous variants have done.

Experts caution that there may be setbacks along the way, just as Omicron's make-up was unexpected, the next variant could present a more serious public health risk and delay the end of the pandemic.

Many countries, particularly where vaccination coverage is low, could still face overwhelmed hospitals due to the current Omicron wave.

But a political urgency is appearing in much of the West and Africa to return societies to a sense of normality, with the transmissibility of Omicron forcing leaders to choose between rolling back public health measures or seeing their workforces and economies risk grinding to a standstill.

Covid-19 stunned the world in early 2020 and in 2022, some epidemiologists and leaders are willing to entertain the prospect that the virus might be making steps toward endemic status. 

Credit

Rob Picheta - CNN

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