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Burial place of patient who died of COVID-19 at Pondok Ranggon Cemetery in Jakarta, Indonesia – Photo: REUTERS
The scary thing is that the nightmare has not stopped, it even gets worse with each passing day. It is not natural that David Nabarro, an envoy from the World Health Organization (WHO), described the COVID-19 pandemic as “terrible” and “strange”.
“It is much worse than any fantasy novel about the plague. The situation is serious, we are not even in the middle, we are only at the beginning,” Nabarro said. he told the British Parliament last week.
Uncertain future
“What will happen next? No one knows. The virus surprises us in every way and we can continue to surprise ourselves,” said Catherine Troisi, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Texas. , expressed concern for the upcoming time.
In the United States, the first deadly outbreaks in the Northeast, South, and West Coast cooled in late July, but in September the number of infections began to skyrocket again across the country.
Epidemiologists are very concerned that this is the time when students come home from school, not to mention that the end-of-the-year chill pushes everyone home more than summer. They forecast a “terrible COVID winter” to come.
The death toll in the United States is now the same as the population of a small town in Ohio, or 2.5 times the number of American soldiers killed in the Vietnam and Korean wars combined. About 800 more people die each day.
That is the general trend. Worldwide, at least 73 countries are experiencing a skyrocketing increase in new infections. For example, in India, a country of more than 1 billion people, more than 90,000 new infections are discovered every day, adding 1 million more in just the first three weeks of September.
Collective graves in Brazil bury the dead in Corona – Photo: REUTERS
In Europe, the blockade helped the continent through the months of the spring crisis, but now the situation is getting worse than before, as people start to ignore the epidemic and return to a normal pace.
“We are facing a dire situation. The number of infections per week is now off scale when the new pandemic peaked in Europe in March,” said Hans Kluge, Europe Director. WHO, comments.
Meanwhile, Israel, a country with nearly 1,200 dead, decided to blockade the country for the second time last week. They are among the few countries that dare to do this, right now, when all economies are almost exhausted by the first blockade.
Across Latin America, the death toll now exceeds 310,000, two-thirds of whom are from Brazil and Mexico. Dr. Carissa F. Etienne, director of the Pan American Medical Organization, warns that the threat is still there, it has not been reduced at all.
“Latin America has restored almost all of its social and community life, just when the COVID-19 pandemic needs a strong intervention. We must understand that reopening too early will make the virus spread easily. easier, putting the entire population in danger. Just look at Europe, “he said Etienne warned.
An empty classroom in North Carolina, USA – Photo: NYT
Black history can be repeated
Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, an infectious disease specialist at Stanford University, warned that COVID-19 could evolve like the Spanish flu a century ago.
The flu at that time hit the United States in three waves: the first in the spring of 1918, the second in the fall, and the last in the winter-spring of 1919. A total of 675,000 Americans died.
In the last days of September 2020, experts commented that many new factors seemed to add to the uncertainty of the epidemic. Cold weather challenges the risk of infection indoors, while seasonal flu threatens to stretch the healthcare system …
Furthermore, the ability to prevent the virus from spreading in the school setting, when millions of students return to the classroom, remains questionable.
Doctor William Haseltine, president of the organization ACCESS Health International, recognizing that the world cannot depend on community immunization strategies for many reasons, but most importantly, natural community immunity can never be achieved due to the possibility of NCoV reinfection. scientifically confirmed.
“Common human corona viruses do not induce community immunity. They have been making us sick for decades, at least once in our lives. Before science, it was not clear that SARS-CoV-2 was the same. No, but the answer already exists after 2 cases of reinfection in Hong Kong and the United States. The remaining question is how often does reinfection occur? ” Haseltine made comments.
Whether SARS-CoV-2 is seasonally active like other corona viruses, for example, he said. HCoV-NL63, humans will not avoid the risk to this vulnerable population, only unless we find a vaccine that better protects the natural immune system.
“For the best, we must recognize the risk of reinfection with NCoV, rather than cling to the hope of community immunity. Only then can we have the medical and scientific solutions necessary for these months and years to come,” said PhD. Haseltine hooked.
