The virus that causes covid-19and SARS CoV-2, “he came to stay and, unless a very different variant appears, once again forcing the confinement and collapse of hospitals, it will become another and join the group of autumn respiratory viruses and winter colds “.
This explains it the scientist and specialist in Infectious Diseases and Clinical Genetics, Vicente Sorianowho claims that “the pandemic is subsiding, fortunately, and the end of the tunnel is already in sight because cases diagnosed and severe cases requiring hospitalization are decreasing globally“, thanks to vaccination.
“It is very difficultalmost impossible, let a variant appear very different from the coronavirus, which eludes everything, that it is much more virulent and that it blocks hospitals again“, adds this researcher and teacher, who currently heads the Medical Center of the International University of Rioja (UNIR) and is vice-dean of its Faculty of Health.
With an eye on autumn and winter, he understands that it will be a year of covid-19 “much better than the first two and, even if from the point of view of medicine, other things will take over, “the fight against covid-19” is on track and its impact will be less and less. It is predictable. “
there will be no pandemic
He stresses, however, thatthere will be small bumps of infections and other types of viruses and bacteria will be present“, as in the case of Ebola, which” is having a small outbreak in West Africa, or monkeypox, which in four months has generated 65,000 confirmed cases worldwide, “but points out that”there will be no pandemic in the sense of covid-19 or HIV (AIDS) because we have a vaccine and antivirals “.
Monkeypox or the rebirth of Ebola are triggers of infections on a planet where “8 billion people live and, in many places, there is a lot of contact with animal reserves, which have their own viruses and can jump. periodically to the human species “. he says.
About the fourth dose of the covid-19 vaccine, which autonomous communities begin to inoculate tomorrowMonday, a over the age of 80 and people with serious underlying medical conditionshe claims that his update with the Ómicron variant was a success, as well as appreciates that it is injected, at the same time, with that of the flu.
The booster dose for anyone under 60 is questionable
Soriano, who was also a counselor of the World Health Organization, assures that, currently, the medical scientific evidence in favor of the fourth dose providing benefits to people under 60 is “questionable”who have already received the first three doses and who do not have a serious underlying disease, nor are transplanted, diabetic or obese.
“It should also be demonstrated – he adds – that between the ages of 50 and 60 without any pathologies at risk, the fourth dose provides a benefit, which has not been proven and, under 50, even less”.
It also guarantees that “immunity against covid-19 is temporaryand, therefore, «the vaccine and its booster doses are not vaccines against hepatitis B or tetanus», but rather «it is more like the flu, which protects more partially and requires a booster dose.
Global immunity, not yet
On the possibility of selecting global immunity with universal vaccines, he explains that “viruses have a great biological diversity and, with just one vaccine it is very difficult to find a panacea“This protects against all variants. It happened with smallpox and little else. Even with polio, type 2 was eradicated, but not type 1.”
“I hope that! we had a way to select global immunity, but, at the moment, it doesn’t look like that will happen in the short term“, therefore” we must play with vaccines adapted to what is currently circulating “, concludes this specialist.
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