Updated: 09 August 2024
More than four years since the deadly coronavirus swept across the world, sending countries into lockdown, millions of people into isolation, and pharma companies churning out vaccines and profits, COVID is once again making headlines. COVID hasn’t been wiped out. It’s still out there infecting children, adults, and, the elderly alike, but people and governments are now least worried.
Some brush it off as a minor long-term cold or flu, some attribute it to climate change, and others say the virus is evolving rapidly. Health authorities across countries are not as concerned about COVID as they were four years ago because vaccines are available.
However, those who have been vaccinated are getting COVID-19 too. Is this something to worry about? It should be noted that COVID is no longer considered a pandemic, but the virus still exists and people continue getting infected.
According to the World Health Organization, the coronavirus brought the world to a standstill and wiped out a decade of progress in just two years. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said COVID shouldn’t be ruled out.
He highlighted that the pandemic erased a decade of gains in life expectancy in just two years spotlighting global health security. WHO recorded 1.2 million COVID cases and nearly 10,000 deaths from COVID across the world in 2023.
COVID Downgraded to Endemic
Sabrina Assoumou, expert in infectious diseases, says COVID can no longer be termed a pandemic large groups of people do not need hospitalization for the same. She attributed this to population-level immunity from either vaccination or prior infection, and antivirals like Paxlovid.
Assoumou said people and authorities need to remain vigilant, as well as maintained a robust surveillance system. The expert said people continue to die from COVID – about 2000 people die from coronavirus in the United States because of long COVID and its complications.
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John Connor, a virologist, says the emergence of COVID in 2019 and across the world in 2020 was unexpected and caused chaos and death across the world, overwhelming and collapsing healthcare systems. He said the newness of the virus brought uncertainty and fear.
Connor explained that COVID has been downgraded from a pandemic to an endemic, and is here to stay. And people are treating it like any other respiratory disease.
Reinfection and Long COVID
Reinfections are all too common these days. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) highlighted that reinfections became frequent when the omicron variant came in late 2021 and early 2022. It took a toll on the immunity.
Scientists say long COVID cases come in after the first infection. Symptoms of long COVID include tiredness, coughing, change in smell or taste, depression or anxiety, headaches and sleep problems.
