Will the pandemic become endemic?: 5 considerations

It’s been almost two years since, according to most, this horrible pandemic began infecting humans! It seems we have missed many opportunities by failing to act, when necessary, in a timely and well-considered manner, under the auspices of scientific and medical experts and professionals! Over 800,000 Americans have lost their lives (and probably even more), and several millions, worldwide, and tens of millions (and more) have been infected, to varying degrees, etc.! It seems that every time we feel like we have taken a step forward in this battle, the virus has mutated and we end up losing more ground. The original version, the Delta variant, and now, the Omicron, have shown incredible resilience and deadly power. Even with the rapid deployment of vaccines, which are believed to be the best ever created to combat any virus etc., we are still losing lives, and many are infected, etc.! It seems that we have lost 2 years as well and economies, as well as economic conditions, around the world continue to suffer! Many supply chains, employment and mental health have also fallen victim! Many now believe that we can, and probably never will, be completely free of this, but more likely, it will become an endemic disease, like influenza (flu, etc.). That means that we will begin to consider it, as, with – us, and a part – of, our normal life, every day, and, instead of looking to eliminate it, and/or a cure, we will do it as much as possible. It will likely require a series of boosters – vaccinations etc – and some common sense, public health – to significantly minimize the overall impact. With that in mind, this article will briefly attempt to consider, examine, review, and discuss 5 considerations going forward.

1. Rate of vaccinations/vaccinated, versus, the mutation rate, etc: Unfortunately, many are their own worst enemies, paying more attention to empty promises, conspiracy theories, and so-called alternative approaches and/or denials/minimization than listening to the experts and doing their job. part, getting vaccinated and wearing a mask, social distancing, etc. While there will be cases of rupture, for the most part, we believe, these will be mild, and most of the severe cases, hospitalizations, and deaths will be, of the unvaccinated, and immunocompromised, etc! If more people had the vaccine, these mutations would have far fewer places to reproduce, etc.

2. Worldwide rate: This is a global public health crisis and, given that there are important, socioeconomic differences, between the richest nations and the poorest, the risk is greater! Although President Biden has promised and committed many millions of doses of treatment, many other nations have yet to rise to their feet.

3. Transmission, versus, severity: One of the challenges, for the testing process, is that so many are currently being tested, and the results are imperfect, non-symptomatic, as well as more severe cases, they are counted equally! How many people, annually, get the flu, but don’t know, and it’s never reported, because the outcome may be, not – serious?

4. Will we begin to see, more broadly, the acceptance of common sense, public health measures?: This battle must be continuous and persistent! We cannot stop using common sense, in the search, to reduce the impacts! Why do we continue to witness so many not getting vaccinated, using public spaces, and/or wearing a mask, when appropriate? Why should this be a political issue, when it should be, focused on public health?

5. Ease/convenience of more reliable tests: Today, most tests are difficult to locate, expensive, inconvenient, and many results are false positive and/or negative. We need to address how to improve this component!

Despite many feeling pandemic: fatigue, detention, smart public health approaches, now, will have the worst impacts, will continue, longer than otherwise! Unfortunately, this virus will likely be with us for a significant period of time, and we must figure out how best to transform endemic conditions, wisely, in the safest and most intelligent ways.