oppn parties Will Omicron Push Covid To Being An Endemic Disease?

News Snippets

  • UP Police have arrested three government officials and 9 others for the murder of journalist and RTI activist Raghvendra Bajpai in Sitapur
  • Union minister Jitendra Singh said terrorists were behind the killing of three persons in Marhoon village in Kathua district of J&K
  • Uneasy calm remains in Manipur as tribal areas shut down after the Kuki-Zo Council called for an indefinite shutdown
  • Indian drug manufacturers are set to produce Emplagliflozin at a tenth of the price of the innovator Boehringer Ingelheim, after its patent expires on March 11. The companies in the running are Mankind, Torrent, Alkem, Dr Reddys and Lupin
  • The Budget session of Parliament will resume today against the backdrop of ongoing tussle over delimitation and three-language formula
  • Police have arrested a third suspect in the horrific rape-murder of foreign tourists and their Indian friend in Hampi in Karnataka
  • Stock brokers are upbeat that the present downtrend in the markets will see a reversal in March with reports by international analysts suggesting that the worst in the tariff war between the US and China and other nations almost over.
  • The Centre is in the process of implementing a 23-point agenda for regulation and reforms in areas like land, labour, utilities and permits to make life easier for businesses across the country
  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that if businessmen take one step, the government is ready to take 10 steps with them
  • Rohit Sharma, Shreyas Iyer, K L Rahul shine with the bat after the spinner restrict New Zealand to just 251
  • Unbeaten India lift the ICC Champions Trophy by beating New Zealand by 4 wickets
  • 2nd ODI: Rohit Sharma roars back to form with a scintillating ton as India beat England by 4 wickets in a high scoring match in Cuttack
  • Supreme Court will appoint an observer for the mayoral poll in Chandigarh
  • Government makes it compulsory for plastic carry bag makers to put a QR or barcode with their details on such bags
  • GBS outbreak in Pune leaves 73 ill with 14 on ventilator. GBS is a rare but treatable autoimmune disease
India are Champions of the Trophy - Beat New Zealand by 4 wickets to lift the trophy ////// Rohit Sharma shines with a brilliant 76 /////// Indian spinners put the brakes on the Kiwis
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Will Omicron Push Covid To Being An Endemic Disease?

By admin
First publised on 2022-01-12 10:11:02

About the Author

Sunil Garodia By our team of in-house writers.

Dr Jaiprakash Muliyil is a top epidemiologist. He is also the chairperson of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the National Institute of Epidemiology at the Indian Council of Medical Research and the top government medical expert on Covid. Dr Muliyil thinks that Omicron is "practically unstoppable" and that India has 60 to 90 times more cases than it is detecting.

Some in the scientific community are veering around to the view that Omicron will end when a huge number of people are infected, bringing about herd immunity. There is also a rumour that getting infected by Omicron will give lifelong immunity from Covid. The WHO has already said that more than half of Europe's population will get infected in 6 to 8 weeks. The US reported 1.3 million cases on Monday, the highest by any country in a single day till now. Although India is reporting low cases and the cases have also dipped in the last couple of days, it is mainly due to low testing. The positivity rate remains alarmingly high in most states.

WHO has also said that giving repeated booster doses is not viable strategy. Echoing this, the European Medicines Agency, the drug watchdog of the EU, said that the Omicron variant was pushing Covid towards being an endemic disease which the world can live with. It said that "with the increase of immunity in population - and with Omicron, there will be a lot of natural immunity taking place on top of vaccination - we will be fast moving towards a scenario that will be closer to endemicity.”

The gist of all this is that Omicron will spread far, wide and fast. But the reassuring thing is that it will provide immunity to people to fight the virus. But no immunity is totally safe for the simple reason that the virus mutates and some mutations, like the Omicron, have nearly 34 further mutations in its spike protein. As further research leads to discovery of medicines for Covid, it will become less life threatening and manageable and people will have to live with it like they do with other diseases. But the risk of infected persons spreading it to others, unlike most other diseases, will always remain.