While the vaccine pass should be adopted at the National Assembly this Sunday, January 16, the peak of the 5th wave is expected for the next few days. But in the Sunday newspaper, epidemiologist and research director at Inserm Vittoria Colizza warns against the possible emergence of a new variant.
In the Sunday newspaper of January 1, Olivier Véran, himself currently positive, declared that this 5th wave could be the last, based on the number of people infected around the world, in particular by the Omicron variant. Two weeks later, the epidemiologist Vittoria Colizza is much more cautious : “I’ve heard this refrain many times, but it’s never happened before. Restrictions persist, a new more dangerous variant may emerge… We are still in the pandemic phase, and we have no proof to say that this wave will be the last » she says in the JDD, this Sunday, January 16.
The specialist does not stop there and recalls that the Delta variant, still very present in the area, leads to serious forms. As for Omicron, “90% of cases in the northern half”, it certainly leads to far fewer serious forms, but “with a very high incidence rate, even a low probability will result in a large number of hospitalizations. » But Vittoria Colizza is rather reassuring about how to avoid overloading hospitals: respecting barrier gestures, but also reducing our interactions. “The 20% reduction in our social contacts could halve hospitalizations » she specifies. Another solution: vaccination.
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Test in prevention
The epidemiologist takes advantage of this interview to recall the importance of vaccination, three doses to prevent 90% of serious forms. If the vaccine proves its effectiveness, it remains little present in schools where contamination continues to increase, leading to an increase in hospitalizations among children. Vittoria Colizza then pleads for a preventive screening system rather than the one currently in place: “This reactive system condemns us to run after the virus when we could test for prevention. » By giving the example of European neighbors such as the United Kingdom or Austria, which test students regularly. She recommends to ” systematically test all students once a week, twice a week when the incidence is high. » This new protocol would be particularly effective in the youngest students, still very little vaccinated.
Article written in collaboration with 6Medias.
Photo credits: Panoramic / Bestimage