The right strategy for achieving collective immunity? With the emergence of the Omicron variant and the arrival of a new epidemic wave in France, the executive has chosen to “let the virus circulate”, Eric Caumes said on LCI this Sunday. If the public authorities had wanted to slow down the epidemic, “they would have done” corn “they did not do it for economic and moral reasons”, he adds. “It’s a very risky bet. We have to hope that they are not mistaken”, worries the former head of the infectious diseases department at Pitié-Salpêtrière (AP-HP). “The reality we will know in 15 days, not before”, he continues with reference to the hypothesis according to which the Omicron variant is less severe than the Delta.
Anyway, French hospitals are already “on your knees”, estimates the infectious disease specialist who fears that the outbreak of contamination will send many unvaccinated people to intensive care units. Even if the Omicron variant would be less serious. “Currently, 15% of patients in intensive care in AP-HP hospitals are infected with the Omicron variant. They are immunosuppressed or very old people but also unvaccinated people”, specifies the doctor. “We are forced to make places for Covid patients, to cancel surgeries, and that is still the Delta”, he warns.
In addition, Eric Caumes believes that this new epidemic outbreak will not be “not the last” epidemic wave. “It may be the last of this importance, but there will be upheavals”, he adds. “We are going to live with the virus, endemically “, predicts the doctor.