Antonio Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, spoke about the Covid-19 pandemic and said “we shouldn’t be surprised” if a new variant of the disease emerges in the northern hemisphere winter.
“We should anticipate that another variant is very likely to emerge that evades the immune response we received from infection and / or vaccination,” he said at an event with the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism.
In relation to the current measures to counter this possible impact, while stressing that the world is currently moving “in the right direction”, he also clarified that “We are entering the winter months, where no matter what the respiratory disease is, there is always a risk of an increase.”
The end of the Covid-19 pandemic is approaching for the World Health Organization
Last winter, the Omicron variant caused a spike in covid-19 cases and there have been more sublines of Omicron since then. As such, Fauci – Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor and who will leave that role at the end of 2022 – is estimated to have been careful in talking about the end of the pandemic. “I think it would be a little arrogant to suddenly say we’re done,” he said.
While acknowledging that in recent months there has been a decrease in deaths related to covid-19, he made it clear that he believes that we are not yet at the end of the epidemic.
Carla Vizzotti warns against the new Ómicron strains: “The circulation rate is increasing”
WHO has considered that it is not yet the end of the pandemic, but the end “is in sight”
Something similar was expressed weeks ago by the general manager of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who said that the coronavirus pandemic “is not over”, while acknowledging that “its end is already on the horizon”
“We have never been in a better position to end the pandemic”, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference with reporters on Wednesday. “We’re not there yet, but the end is in sight.”
However, he urged countries to encourage vaccinations, particularly in the elderly and at risk, to plan for increased cases, and to continue testing and sequencing to track down the virus.
Although Covid continues to circulate intensively around the world, future waves of infections must not translate into waves of deaths, he said. Maria van KerkhoveWHO Chief Technical Officer for Covid.
The organization declared Covid a pandemic on March 11, 2020. More than 606 million cases have been recorded since then, with nearly 6.5 million deaths.
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