The COVID-19 pandemic is slowly disappearing to make way for the endemic. This means that virus management will remain important, but will no longer affect the general activities of the population. This is what the head of the division of infectious diseases predicts of the General Hospital Montreal Jew, Karl Weiss.
An endemic is the usual presence of an infectious disease in a given region. The disease is rife there permanently, but its effects are known. Influenza, for example, is rampant in Quebec in an endemic context. When the fifth wave of COVID-19 is completely over, the management of the virus will have to resemble that of the flu, believes Dr. Weiss.
“With this COVID 6.0, the approach will be very different,” he explained during a virtual conference organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal (CCMM). Will there be other waves? Possibly, probably even. But it will take a similar approach to the flu, more democratized in the distribution of tests, which will allow greater flexibility.
We must now look at COVID in society and not society in COVID: it is no longer the virus that should be at the center of everything.
Karl Weiss, head of the infectious diseases division of the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal
Global population immunity is strong, he finds, given the number of individuals affected by Omicron and thanks to vaccination. This explains why the response to a new wave of the virus is likely to be less severe. In a context of endemic COVID-19, it is all the more unlikely that a more threatening variant or sub-variant than Omicron will reappear, estimates Karl Weiss.
“Omicron is like the pastry chef’s star cake. It is his masterpiece. He won’t show you the cakes he ruined before, because he found the best recipe. So yes, there will be subvariants, but their impact on society will never compare to the start of the pandemic.”
Targeted approach
In a context of endemic COVID-19, people at risk, such as immunosuppressed individuals or the elderly, will need to receive special treatment. We are thinking here of various drugs developed to limit the effects of COVID-19. These individuals may also receive further booster doses of vaccine.
For the general population, a variable geometry approach is preferred. Most people are at risk of getting a vaccine every four to five years.
So far, the COVID-19 resulted in approximately six million deaths worldwide.
