As we began the year 2022, the theme on everyone’s lips was that of “learning to live with the virus” of COVID-19. Twelve months later, we see that cohabitation with a potentially deadly virus is proving to be rather stormy and that the consequences can be serious.
After two years of fierce fight against successive waves of infections with strong blows of restrictive measures of all kinds, political leaders pleaded for the adoption of a “new normal” by adapting our behavior to the presence of the SARS CoV virus. -2.
Thus, despite the meteoric spread of the Omicron variant and the sub-variants that followed, public health announced relaxations in its constraints from the end of January. The end of the obligation to wear a mask in public places will then come in the spring.
In response, several experts have regularly called for caution, fearing that the population will interpret this “new normal” as a pure and simple return to life before. In fact, wearing a mask has been largely neglected and the triple epidemic of the fall (COVID-19, influenza, respiratory syncytial virus) suggests that many people continue to adopt risky behaviors when they present with flu symptoms.
Data compiled by the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec confirms that “cohabitation with the virus” leads to greater exposure to risk and many more infections. As of December 18, there were 633,802 confirmed infections in 2022, almost the equivalent of the first two years of the pandemic combined (641,777 cases). A number all the more spectacular as access to screening tests has been restricted since the beginning of the year.
Consistently, the number of hospitalizations related to COVID-19 has also jumped. As of December 18, it stood at 49,590 new admissions, more than in the first two years of the health crisis (30,043 admissions).
Then, as the number of hospitalized patients increases, so does the number of deaths. As of December 18, 5,688 Quebecers have succumbed to COVID-19 in 2022, which represents an increase compared to 2021.
In the eyes of the professor of social and preventive medicine at the School of Public Health at the University of Montreal Benoît Mâsse, there are certainly “things that we have not learned”. He is concerned about the authorities’ reaction time to the rise in influenza cases this fall, when we should have developed better reflexes after two years of the pandemic.
“If there’s one thing we should have learned, it’s that we shouldn’t wait until the emergency room is full to act,” he laments.
On an individual level, Quebecers must also adapt their behavior for cohabitation to work. “Each of us is responsible for reducing community transmission, insists the virologist. If you have symptoms, stay home. If we have the slightest doubt that we are contagious, we must isolate ourselves. »
Living with the consequences
The adaptation of daily life is not the only drawback of the “new normal”, as Benoît Mâsse points out: “Living with the virus is also living with the consequences. And one of the serious consequences takes the form of an epidemic of chronic diseases inside the viral pandemic.
More and more health experts and political leaders are concerned about the chronic form of COVID-19, which is commonly referred to as “long COVID”.
On the occasion of the publication of a preview of the forthcoming report of the Task Force on the post-COVID-19 condition, on December 14, the Chief Science Advisor of Canada revealed that it is 1.4 million Canadians who have reported symptoms of COVID long until now.
The DD Mona Nemer confirmed that more and more people report suffering from, among other things, muscle pain, shortness of breath, extreme fatigue, mental fog, gastrointestinal disturbances or heart palpitations more than a month after contracting an infection with the SARS CoV-2 virus.
If we still do not know the mechanisms that lead to the development of the chronic form, we know that women are twice as at risk than men and that this condition disrupts the lives of patients.
“People have said they feel trapped in their bodies, isolated and misunderstood by those around them. Many had difficulty obtaining care or services. The majority have lost their jobs due to this disability,” reported the DD Nemer at a press conference.
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