Omicron Mythology

Christina Pagel (University College London) thinks it odd that people, in the UK, believe the Covid19 pandemic is 'over'. There was a near record of more than 4.25 million cases in the country last week. She suspects that people (and their government) are widely accepting at least one of three prevailing myths about this coronavirus (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/30/uk-near-record-covid-cases-three-myths-omicron-pandemic). The first myth is that Covid19 is 'endemic' and we will just 'have to learn to live with it'. Pagel points out that the term 'endemic' means the disease has become predictable (like Influenza). The various waves of Covid19, have been (and are) far from predictable. Pagel thinks that Sars-CoV-2 will probably become 'endemic' but we could be decades away from that situation. The second myth is that Sars-CoV-2 s evolving to become milder and will eventually become like the Common cold. Pagel points out that there is no progression through successive variants (alpha to omicron). Transmission, rather than 'living with the host', drives the evolution of this virus. Scientists really don't know much about the long-term evolution of coronaviruses in humans. The third myth is that the vaccination programme is 'finished'. Pagel notes that immunity from the current vaccines wanes, over a matter of months. This waning is mostly against new infections but there are also declines in vaccine effectiveness against severe disease and death. Pagel concludes that the Covid19 pandemic is far from 'over'. She believes a sensible strategy would be to facilitate the effects of vaccination by concomitantly reducing infection. There are few signs of any such approach, when these myths prevail.