At a press conference on Tuesday, Prime Minister François Legault mentioned that we should learn to live with COVID-19. “It means that the virus will not leave us, whether in the form of outbreaks or new variants,” notes Benoit Barbeau, professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at UQAM.
Mr. Barbeau explains that it will especially be necessary to learn how to control the virus well to avoid strong transmission. Some possible solutions: fairer interventions, whether in terms of vaccines or technologies.
“Vaccines are still very effective,” says the professor. “This is also why we continue to send the message because the vaccine protects people and prevents infected people from developing severe symptoms and being hospitalized.”
Good vaccine coverage in Quebec helps reduce cases, especially severe, of COVID-19, but there is a possibility that some variants are more resistant.
This is also the case with the Delta variant, which scrambles the waters, underlines Mr. Barbeau.
“There has been an evolution,” he notes. “We went from the original virus which changed a bit at the beginning, and then we had the Alpha, Beta and Gamma variants, and now we have the Delta variant which is more transmissible and virulent.”
Constant evolution
The evolution of the virus remains to be determined, according to the specialist, who explains, however, that much more is known about the coronavirus today.
“We know that, unlike at the beginning, it is not necessarily the contaminated surfaces that are the main sources of transmission of the virus,” says Mr. Barbeau. “We know it’s the droplets and aerosols. You have to have very good masks and avoid having high-risk activities. It is certain that we could possibly face a variant which could be a little more transmissible, but again we do not know what life has in store for us. The virus and the variants can evolve. “
Living with the virus, does that mean that the coronavirus will become a bit like the flu, an infectious disease that comes back every year?
“There are important differences,” replies Mr. Barbeau. “We are talking about two different families of viruses that do not evolve in the same way. We have learned a lot more about the Influenza virus, it is a virus that comes back year after year and its properties change. However, that could be a probable scenario, in the sense that an endemic view of the virus would allow us to have a new vaccine more suited to the variant of the day, and to protect people, particularly vulnerable people. “
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