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The World Health Organization (WHO) warned this Monday that, despite the severity of the covid-19 crisis, which has caused more than 1.7 million deaths, we must prepare for other even “worse” pandemics. “It is only an alarm signal,” warned Michael Ryan, WHO Emergency Director, at the last press conference of the year for this UN agency.
“This pandemic has been very tough. It circulated around the world very quickly and affected every corner of the planet, but it was not necessarily the worst, ”warned Ryan, who throughout his career faced other even more deadly diseases.
The coronavirus “is very easily transmitted and kills people,” but “its mortality levels are relatively low compared to other emerging diseases,” Ryan recalled, what to do “That we prepare in the future for something that is even worse.”
(Also read: Covid-19 patients in ICU have grown by 50 percent in December)
His partner and adviser to the WHO, Bruce Aylward, supported this same thesis by stating that despite scientific progress in the fight against covid-19, with the creation of vaccines in record time, humanity is very unprepared for the threat of future pandemics.
“We are in the second and third waves of the virus and we are not yet able to control it”, Aylward lamented during the press conference. “Although we are better prepared, we are still not enough for the current (pandemic), and even less for the future ones,” he added.
Covid-19 endemic
Also at a press conference, the WHO warned that it is increasingly likely that the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus will become endemic in humans, in some animals or in both, that is, that it does not disappear with vaccines.
“The most likely scenario is that the virus becomes another endemic virus and that it poses a very low level of threat in the context of a global vaccination program, ”said Michael Ryan.
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“The existence of a vaccine, even highly effective, is not a guarantee of the elimination or eradication of an infectious disease,” he added.
The Organization’s experts had already commented in May that there was a possibility that the coronavirus would become endemic, a prediction that is being reinforced in light of what has been learned about this virus since then.
Vaccination against covid-19 will allow, however, control the spread of the virus and bring societies back to normal, assured.
The renowned infectious disease specialist, David Heymann, agreed that “the concept of herd (or herd) immunity has been a misunderstanding when it is believed that it will somehow decrease contagion if enough people are immunized.”
Heymann, who headed the unit that fought against SARS at the WHO, said that no one can predict how immunity will evolve because there are many things that are not yet known about it, such as the duration of vaccines that have been licensed.
(See: Covid-19, on the way to being the first cause of death this year in Colombia)
“It seems that the destiny of this coronavirus is to become endemic, as has happened with others. This coronavirus will continue to mutate as it reproduces in human cells, especially in areas of intense transmission.”, He explained.
The scientist anticipated that the world will be able to live with the new coronavirus thanks to all the public health tools that have been developed in this pandemic year. The coronavirus “will continue to spread despite vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tests. We have to learn to live with it, ”Heymann said.
EFE and AFP
