Andrea Ammon, director of the European Center for Disease Prevention, said Covid-19 was unlikely to go away. On the contrary, we can expect the virus to stay with us.
European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) director Andrea Ammon believes the world needs to prepare to live with Covid-19 for the long term because the virus will not go away. "Now it looks like he's more likely to stay", she told theAFP during a video conference. "It seems very well adapted to humans. So we have to prepare for what's left with us ", she added. The official of the European health agency revealed that this was nothing unusual. "It wouldn't be the first virus to stay with us forever, so that's not an unusual feature for a virus.", she continued.
Variants that worry
Thanks to knowledge about Covid-19 and in particular thanks to the vaccines now available, the chances of contracting the virus are drastically reduced. However, scientists do not yet know if they also block the transmission of the disease.
For several weeks, variants of the virus, especially South African and Brazilian, have been worrying because they could reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine. "The question is what this implies for the effectiveness of the vaccine", said Andrea Ammon, recalling that vaccines can be adapted to these variants as is done every year for seasonal flu. The director of the European Center for Disease Prevention is optimistic. "It is possible that the same thing will happen, or at some point (the virus) stabilizes and we can use a vaccine for a long time.", she concluded.
Yesterday, Friday February 12, Paris hospitals (AP-HP) announced a first case of serious reinfection with the South African variant of the coronavirus. "This case illustrates the fact that the (South African) variant may be responsible for serious reinfection after a first mild infection", revealed the researchers in their study, published Wednesday in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. "The immunity developed after the first infection did not prevent reinfection with the South African variant", said the AP-HP in a statement. It would seem, however, that as a general rule cases of reinfection by variants, British, South African or Brazilian, give rise to an episode less severe than the first.