While the Omicron subtype now accounts for 72% of Covid cases, the US has not seen an increase in cases nationwide. Covid hospitals are now at the lowest point of the pandemic. However, scientists warned this week that the coronavirus would continue to evolve to avoid immunity, causing future increases that would be difficult to predict. Covid-19 is evolving faster than expected and “we should expect a lot in the future,” Trevor Bedford, a biostatistics professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, told a group of independent FDA advisers on Wednesday. “These viruses will do better and spread locally and perhaps regionally and perhaps globally.” The US generally saw increases in the UK three or four weeks later, but the reported cases remained stable at an average of around 26,000 per day. Although deaths have dropped significantly since the summit of the Omicron, more than 500 Americans are still dying every day. “I think we’re going to see some growing cases in some places,” said Benjamin Linas, a professor at Boston University School of Medicine. Lifting precautions are likely to lead to future increases, he and others wrote in a study published earlier this month. “We are not in the crisis that we were behind in 2020, but we must be realistic that we are also not completely finished,” Linas said. Some areas in the Northeast, including New York and Massachusetts, are beginning to see ticks upwards. Philadelphia is considering returning the mask indoors next week. In Washington, where confirmed cases have risen 135 percent in the past two weeks, several high-level politicians were positive, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday. It is difficult to analyze the extent to which outbreaks elsewhere have been caused by behavioral changes, increased BA.2 transmission, and weakened immunity, and whether factors in the US could suppress such a wave. As the pandemic continues, changes in the way cases are reported and counted can also blur the picture. Home examinations are often not counted on official charges, making it increasingly difficult to understand how prevalent infections are. Sewage monitoring could be useful to fill the gaps, but many places are still increasing such programs. Several states have moved weekly or twice a week instead of daily, reporting cases, reflecting a similar change in June 2021 during a calm before the Delta eruption. Oklahoma is changing the way it reports the seven-day average. Changes in the definitions of Covid hospitalization and death may also complicate pandemic monitoring. Some states have also limited their definitions of Covid treatment to focus only on patients receiving Covid-specific medications, while others have changed the way they define Covid deaths. Last Monday, U.S. lawmakers reached an agreement to fund $ 10 billion for Covid, some of which has already expired. However, on Thursday, several senators confirmed that the vote would not take place until after the two-week spring break. That amount was lower than the $ 15 billion previously cut from a general expenditure account or the $ 22.5 billion requested by the White House. The new bill will not cover examinations and treatments for those without insurance who lost this coverage in March. More than 30 million Americans are uninsured, and the lack of affordable, affordable trials and treatments could further affect the country’s ability to monitor and treat cases and serious illness. The new funding package would also limit spending on global Covid campaigns, including vaccination, which could prolong the pandemic by allowing new variants to appear and spread. “This is a global health problem and if we continue to reduce the budget for vaccines in developing countries, we will get the next Omicron,” Linas said. “Because we have these pockets where the virus is going to reproduce, it has already extended the epidemic by at least a year – and if it continues to happen, we will chase our tail indefinitely.” It is estimated that half of Americans may have become infected with Omicron over a 10-week period – a “significant number,” Bedford said. By comparison, the flu usually infects perhaps 10-20% of the population in about 20 weeks. But it would also mean that about half of Americans were not infected in the first Omicron wave, which leaves them potentially vulnerable to another wave now. The coronavirus, as it swept the world and infected millions, mutated two to ten times faster than the usual flu, Bedford said. It is likely that future variants will continue to emerge from Omicron, even surpassing immunity from previous Omicron cases, he added. But it is also possible for a new variant of a previous executive, such as Delta, to appear wild. Omicron appears to have evolved from a much older version of the virus in the summer of 2020 before exploding worldwide in late 2021. It is also difficult to know if Covid-19 will eventually become a seasonal virus, such as the flu or the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). “It’s not clear to me that it is really related to the months of the year or whether it is just confused by the virology that is happening,” Linas said. The flu, for example, is “extremely seasonal,” but “I do not think we know that about Sars-CoV-2 yet.” A major treatment has stopped in the US amid questions about its effectiveness. The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has withdrawn approval of sotrovimab, a monoclonal antibody, as studies reveal that it is less likely to be effective against Omicron. Recent research also shows that this treatment can create resistance – a major concern with other monoclonal antibodies and antivirals. Vaccines and treatments help, but are not enough to stop the pandemic on their own, and should be accompanied by measures such as ventilation and coverage during periods of high transmission, Linas said. Stresses are also highly dependent on human behavior. “There is no virus epidemic outside of the way people behave,” Linas said. “It would be a great mistake to dismiss ourselves and our leaders… The actions we take or do not matter.”
