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Is The Pandemic Now Endemic?
Bottom Line: The day will come, and hopefully soon, when the “p” word is replaced with the “e”. As in pandemic is replaced with endemic. The more data we receive the more I’m convinced the “pandemic of politicians” clinging to restrictivepublic policy is a greater threat than the current incarnation of the virus. While history illustrates pandemics end when benign strains of viruses become the dominate strain, increasingly studies are showing how much less serve omicron is and has been compared to previous strains.
A recent study of 70,000 Covid positive people, split between those infected with the delta variant and those with omicron showed huge differences in outcomes. The big picture takeawayswere these...
Omicron positive people were...
- 74% less likely to be hospitalized
- Hospital stays were an average of 70% shorter
- 91% less likely to die
The summation statement from the authors of the study paints the picture clearly: Reductions in disease severity associated with Omicron variant infections were evident among both vaccinated and unvaccinated patients, and among those with or without documented prior SARS-CoV-2 infection. Now it’s unlikely you’ll hear it discussed this way, but if the dominate strain of Covid is now at least 74% less severe than its predecessor, that’s a big deal, right? And that begs the question as to what level of reduction in severity needs to be in the eyes of public policy makers before acknowledgement of the pandemic having given way to a new endemic flu bug? With this data in hand these are the types of conversations public policy makers – outside of the free state of Florida – should be having.