A return to post-pandemic normality is in sight, according to microbiologist and head of the Jewish General Hospital’s division of infectious diseases, Karl Weiss.
Invited by the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, on Wednesday, Dr. Weiss drew up a rather optimistic state of the situation which suggests the measures that will now be required to “live with the virus”, as the now established expression wants.
Karl Weiss notes that the progressive deconfinement here as elsewhere does not have a major impact and that it is time, he says, to stop evoking catastrophic scenarios in connection with this deconfinement, the progressive nature of which has precisely allowed maintain the downward trend in hospitalizations.
It will therefore no longer be appropriate to speak of “waves” when a possible “COVID 6.0” comes, according to his expression, but of an endemic situation, in the same way as for the flu. However, he clarified that the traditional concept of herd immunity no longer applies in the case of COVID-19. Massive exposure to the virus and vaccination of an overwhelming majority of the population means that people will likely continue to contract the virus, but will be less sick and less often hospitalized, and will no longer be needed to “close society”.
Moreover, he reported on a series of treatments for the disease that are in the works, which will greatly help reduce the impact of an infection among citizens.
According to him, however, we must avoid considering COVID-19 as the new influenza. He recalls that COVID has more serious inflammatory effects than influenza, that it presents risks of what is now known as long-term COVID, that mortality is higher with this virus and that it is transmitted by aerosols, therefore over a much greater distance than influenza. It seems probable, according to him, that there will have to be booster vaccinations in the future, but these will probably be more targeted towards at-risk clienteles.
The latest wave has highlighted the need to add more flexibility to the Quebec hospital network, which has fewer beds per inhabitant than in almost all developed countries. Karl Weiss also believes that it will be necessary to establish an early warning system, more democratic screening, possibly in the workplace, and outpatient clinics that would be dedicated solely to the treatment of COVID.