This winter, the fifth wave of Covid-19 due to the delta variant turned into a tsunami of cases, with the arrival of the highly contagious omicron in early December. While an epidemic peak seemed to be emerging in France, the new variant has taken over and contaminations are now soaring to levels never seen before. More than 200,000 daily cases are on average detected these days.
But if we compare to previous waves, these records of infected people do not automatically translate into the data of health establishments. Admittedly, the number of hospitalizations, intensive care admissions and deaths is on the rise and at significant levels, but in much smaller proportions than in the previous four epidemic outbreaks.
This unstable situation remains, however, the result of the government’s strategy, which relies almost exclusively on vaccination and lets the virus run. The calculation: the slightest apparent danger of infections due to omicron could put an end to the epidemic, thanks to the immunity thus conferred and that of the vaccines. A risky bet, according to epidemiologists interviewed by Release, which, in addition, focuses on hospital tension by leaving the risk of long Covid in the blind spot.