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Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House Chief Medical Adviser and Director of NIAID, answers questions from Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) at the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Work and Pensions at Capitol Hill on January 11, 2022 in Washington, DC
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White House Chief Medical Adviser dr. Anthony Fauci said on Monday that it was too early to predict whether the Covid-19 omicron version would mark the final wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The open question is whether this will be a live vaccination against the virus that everyone hopes for,” Fauci said via video conference on Davos Agenda Virtual Event.
The omicron variant, although highly portable, has been found to be less serious than previous versions, raising hopes that accelerate the end of the pandemic. However, Fauci said she was still not assured.
“I hope so. But that would only be the case if we don’t get a second variant that eludes the immune response of the previous version,” he said.
Nevertheless, even if omicron appears as the final version of Covid-19, it is unlikely that this would completely mean the end of the virus, Fauci said. Instead, it will remain present in society at the endemic level.
“Control means you have it present, but it is present at a level that doesn’t disturb society,” Fauci said. “That’s my definition of what endemicity would mean.”
At this stage, public health measures such as wearing masks would no longer be necessary and society could return to some level of normalcy before the covid, he said.
“It will not be the way to eliminate this disease completely. But hopefully it will be at such a low level that it will not disrupt our usual social, economic and other interactions. For me, this is what is new and normal.”
“Too early” to call Covid an endemic
Fauci spoke along with a group of public health experts who agreed that omicron is likely to become the dominant strain of Covid-19 worldwide in 2022. However, they were divided on whether this will be the last strain.
“It’s really too early to really call it endemic. There’s a good chance we’ll have a new version,” said Annelies Wilder-Smith, a professor of emerging infectious diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The new version is likely to be less serious if we look at previous versions, but it’s still important to prepare for the worst, she said.
However, Richard Hatchett, chief executive of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation, was more optimistic.
“Omicron will sweep the world. Hopefully it will wipe out other versions,” he said, adding that the virus is likely to reach a point of equilibrium where it will become an annual epidemic, similar to seasonal flu.
– Don’t miss Geoff Cutmore’s discussion with ECB President Christine Lagarde, Brazilian Economy Minister Paul Guedes, IMF MDC Kristalina Georgieva and Indian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati on Friday at 7.30am CET. The “global economic outlook” will be discussed at the Davos agenda. You can watch live here.
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