There’s come a time when we’ve all wondered, why hasn’t COVID been eliminated yet? We’ve officially passed the two-year mark in this ongoing global health crisis. And we’ve made great strides in slowing the spread and reducing COVID-related complications and even death. But, we’re still not in the clear. As it turns out, COVID-19 may be here to stay.
Perhaps the most obvious reason we have yet to eliminate COVID is its highly contagious nature. COVID-19 spreads in different ways. But it usually involves contact with an infected object, surface, or person. Everyone who gets COVID doesn’t have symptoms. Some people are asymptomatic. Being asymptomatic makes contact tracing and isolation a challenge. And it can lead to more contacts and infections.
Another reason is that COVID, like other viruses, mutates and changes. These mutations cause variants. Variants can help the virus stay alive by infecting otherwise healthy cells, causing more infections. We also know that many variants are more transmissible than the earliest infection. And that many of these new variants are resistant to vaccines.
Health experts promoted vaccines as one way to slow the spread of COVID-19. The goal was to reach herd immunity. With herd immunity, the majority of people are immune to an illness. And to get herd immunity, 75-80% of the population needs to be fully vaccinated. To date, 67% got at least one vaccination.
Finally, there’s still a lot that we don’t yet know about COVID. We know its infections cause a range of illnesses and symptoms which vary person-to-person. But we don’t understand why some people are more symptomatic, have recurrent infections, or what the long-term effects of the illness are.
Living With COVID-19 as Our New Normal
If living with COVID-19 as our new normal is going to be similar to living with the flu, then we should expect a few things. First, we can expect that there will be yearly waves of the virus with the potential for more variants to emerge. As a result, we’ll need to take precautions to reduce its transmission and spread.
We should also expect more strain on our healthcare system. There were several instances when hospitals across the world were beyond their capacity to care for people, during those moments when infections surged. And throughout this pandemic, reports of its effect on mental health and finances have been documented.
Finally, we should expect our new “normal” to look different than what we remember. During surges, we may have to use more widespread global prevention measures. We may temporarily have to go back to remote working, masking policies, and quarantining even with current vaccines. As long as we remain diligent about keeping ourselves and others safe, we can adapt to these changes.