COVID-19 is still a pandemic for the unvaccinated.
We may be done with COVID, but it’s not done with us. No surprise, but there’s a new variant in town.
Omicron BA.2, otherwise known as “stealth Omicron,” is the genetic offspring of Omicron. This new variant has led to a spike in cases in Europe, is disrupting China’s zero-COVID strategy, and is now the cause of COVID in ~40 percent of cases in the northeastern United States. And BA.2 isn’t the only Omicron offspring here.
Wasn’t the pandemic supposed to be over? How could this be happening now? Easy. First, COVID-19 public health measures have been relaxed or eliminated. Second, the protectiveness of the vaccines (and previous COVID infections) continues to wane over time. And third, this variant appears to be even more transmissible than the highly contagious original Omicron variant that caused a massive outbreak in cases in December and January.
Am I concerned? No, and yes. I’m not concerned for any American who is fully vaccinated and boosted. Although BA.2 is super contagious, it doesn’t appear to result in increased hospitalizations and deaths in that group. Case in point: former President Obama and 95-year-old Queen Elizabeth both recently tested positive for COVID without experiencing significant illness.
I am concerned about the relatively low vaccination rates in the United States, when compared with other developed countries around the world. Sixty-five percent of Americans are fully vaccinated. The booster rate is only 29 percent. Neither are good enough.
COVID-19 is still a pandemic for the unvaccinated. The data is clear. The unvaccinated comprise the vast majority of hospitalizations and COVID deaths. We tend to forget that nearly a thousand Americans still die daily from this infectious disease – numbers that would be markedly reduced with improved vaccination rates. It’s almost inconceivable that we will surpass one million COVID deaths in April. Have we become numb to this daily carnage?
These are some of the questions I’m getting from my vaccinated patients:
COVID-19 will become endemic, meaning it will never completely go away. As I’ve stated recently, just like with the flu, annual booster shots may become a reality.
My recommendations are as follows:
Do not fear BA.2. COVID-19 isn’t going to go away, but we can end the pandemic for everyone if we can improve our vaccination rates.
I receive a lot of newsletters every morning to help me stay abreast of what is happening in the healthcare industry. A troubling recent trend
EDITOR’S NOTE Day 3 of the federal shutdown continues. This article by Mark Spivey is part of a special section today published by RACmonitor and
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