Experts in microbiology, vaccinology and primary care have highlighted that the future of covid-19 is uncertain “but it aims to seasonalize”which will require making the population aware of the need for an “up-to-date vaccination” calendar, as is the case with the flu, and ending the concept of “reminder doses” that has caused pandemic fatigue.
Covid-19 control strategy
This has been revealed during a conference in the Congress of Deputies of Disclosure and reflection on the covid-19 control strategyan initiative launched at the request of the Spanish Societies of Family and Community Medicine and of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.
Esther Redondo, head of Vaccines of the Infections, Migrants, Vaccines and Preventive Activities of Primary Care Group (IMVAP) of the SEMERGEN medical society, has stated that at this time there are no clear concepts about the evolution of the virus, but in all probability aims to seasonalizeTherefore, an autumn-winter vaccination calendar aimed mainly at the elderly and vulnerable will have to be established in society.
“We must fight the pandemic fatigue of booster doses”
He has appealed to fight the pandemic fatigue and vaccine weariness what does talk about “the third, fourth, fifth or sixth dose” to raise awareness about an “updated vaccine” for the variants or subvariants that are circulating at all times since reinfections by the virus will continue to occur.
Redondo has lamented the little success of the vaccination campaign with the bivalent dose (the one adapted to omicron and its subvariants) with a territorial disparity “that must be studied”: while in Galicia among those over 59 it reaches 70%, in other communities such as the Balearic Islands or the Canary Islands it does not reach 40% and drops to 20% in Ceuta or Melilla.
How will Covid-19 affect hospitals?
Likewise, the specialist recalled that covid-19 will continue to strain the health system with hospitalizations, deaths, worsening of pathologies and an increase in sequelae from infection (pulmonary, cardiac, renal and neurological, the most frequent) and has warned that if society loses its fear of a virus due to the feeling of protection from previous vaccines, it will re-emerge.
The future lies in surveillance, study and early detection
Rafael Cantón, head of Microbiology at Hospital Ramón y Cajal, explained that omicron is “like an alphabet soup”Therefore, he sees the need for virus sequencing to be “a routine reality for public health reasons in all laboratories.”
He has assured that there are still “gaps” for the medical and scientific community to understand the behavior of SARS-CoV-2, and the covid-19 infection, given “the complexity of the protein genome” of the virus and has appealed for a response ” multidisciplinary” with surveillance, study and early detection to be able to “rush” vaccines enhance the future immune response.
Among other speakers, the head of the Emergency Unit of the San Carlos Clinical Hospital, Juan González del Castillo, has participated, who also believes it is necessary to increase the sequencing of Sars-cov-2 and the detection tests in health centers to “organize the flow of patients”.
More society news
González, like other experts who have participated in the conference, have pointed out that the symptoms of covid-19 have changed and that many patients do not go to the emergency room due to symptoms of infection, but rather due to a “decompensation of their underlying pathology”. which can produce a prolonged hospitalization that leads to a patient who lived independently becoming chronic and dependent.
