The only things that still continue to infect and kill people in the world are the much-reduced levels of COVID-19 affecting the world now five years after it began disrupting its activities.
Here is where we are right now.
Even though the World Health Organization declared in May 2023 that the pandemic had moved into the post-emergency phase, the reality is that COVID-19 is still around. It can be deduced from the records of WHO that since December 2019 there have been 777 million cases and more than seven million deaths, although the true number may be longer due to underreporting. The pandemic has ravaged health systems, economies, and even everyday life.
By the second half of 2022, the rate of infection and death had significantly dropped with the increase of immunity due to vaccination or previous infections coupled with mutations of the virus leading to less severe disease. Now it is being said by experts that the virus has now become endemic like influenza and will have occasional bouts when it comes back.
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The world is thirsty to bury this pathogen, but it still lives on. Many of them want to pass through this phase of the disease, but the virus continues. In October and November last year, there were reports of more than 3000 deaths across 27 countries.
Since November 2021, Omicron subvariants have taken over with the most prevalent variant being KP.3.1.1. The incoming variant XEC is under WHO monitoring but is of negligible global health risk. None of the successive subvariants have been significantly more severe, but there is a risk that future strains might be more transmissible or deadly.
In this sense, vaccines made at record speed remain one of the most important weapons. In all, more than 13.6 billion doses have been given out in the world. The pace for taking up this booster has not seen very high levels in the elderly and healthcare workers.
Long Covid disgusts millions, including symptoms like tiredness, brain fog, and breathlessness. Long Covid has been shown to develop in about six percent of infected individuals and thus becomes a considerable burden on health systems.
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For the moment, we face the long into the future problem of the potential for future pandemics. Scientists are drawing lessons from COVID-19 and preparing for and against future outbreaks. A recent Sample has been about the percentage of bird flu (H5N1); its first USA mortality was concerning humans. The path of building an international treaty on pandemic preparedness and response is fraught with hurdles to consensus.
The other face of the Covid pandemic was vaccine skepticism and misinformation. Experts already warn of the possible fallout of having vaccine skeptic-conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as US health secretary under the then President-elect Donald Trump, especially as vaccines assume a pivotal role in possible future responses to pandemics.