1. Nabarro: ‘Omikron is a clear step towards a world in which corona is no more dangerous than a cold’
Ivar Lede, medical microbiologist at Tergooi MC in Hilversum: “I still find this difficult to interpret. We still have to see what the disease burden is. It could be that the virus becomes milder over time.”
“Reports are coming from South Africa that omikron is milder, but that is a different and mainly younger population. At the moment we still have to analyze the data.”
Bert Niesters, professor of medical microbiology at the University of Groningen: “We will eventually arrive at a variant that behaves just like the other four coronaviruses that are a cold. But we still don’t know when that will be.” It is possible that those four viruses also started as a pandemic. “We do not know for sure because it is not well documented, but it is therefore possible that this virus will become a cold virus,” virologist Gorben Pijlman of Wageningen University told RTL Nieuws earlier.
This virus is certainly not a cold yet. Niesters: “And we are now boosting for a variant that no longer exists, the Wuhan variant. You will not be able to prevent the virus from circulating and you must be able to fight it with a vaccination strategy, until we live in harmony with the virus.” In the video below we explain exactly how that booster works:
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2. Nabarro: ‘The virus mutates into a more contagious, but less dangerous variant’
Niesters: “It has now mutated into a more contagious variant, but that does not mean that other variants do the same. This now applies to the omikron variant. Ultimately, the virus will probably become less dangerous, because if the virus kills everyone, that is biologically not useful.”
Lede: “In the long run, it is likely that the virus will adapt to the host and therefore become milder. When that is, it is difficult. Nobody really knows. Influenza (the flu virus, ed.) also mutates continuously. Very often this is relative mild and people have antibodies, but sometimes the virus mutates, a variant that has no defense against and it is all hands on deck again.”
“Other coronaviruses are mild cold viruses and it could well be that this virus is also moving in that direction, but it still looks like coffee grounds.”
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3. Nabarro: ‘There may be variants that are more annoying than omikron’
Niesters: “Yes, there can still be variants that are more deadly, but it is unlikely that they will become dominant. They can also break out locally, the only way to combat that is to vaccinate and isolate.”
Lede: “I think that’s a bit of an open door. The virus mutates and with that it can also become more annoying. Especially if part of the world’s population has been vaccinated and another part has not.”
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4. Nabarro: ‘I think we will have to deal with covid for decades’
Niesters: “I have always said that within 5 to 10 years we will live in harmony with the virus, but that also has to do with the rest of the world and the vaccination coverage there. It is a big challenge, because you see that the variants spread quickly.”
Lede: “I think so too. I expect that, just like with influenza, there will continue to be groups that are susceptible to this virus. Especially people with underlying suffering and an immune disorder. They can then, for example, just like with the flu shot, be called up annually for a vaccine.”
“Some do take that vaccine, others don’t. In the winter period we always see an increase in people with influenza, also in the ICUs. People also die every year from the flu. Now there is such a disease with corona. because I do expect the virus to continue circulating.”
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