Does Omicron sound the end of the epidemic in Luxembourg?
“An endemic disease” to be treated like the flu. The words of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sachez regarding the Covid-19 pandemic have gone around Europe, with some seeing this statement as a turning point foreshadowing an exit from the pandemic. During a press conference organized in Luxembourg, the speech of the group of Luxembourg medical experts mandated by the government also underlined the endemic nature of Covid-19 “which will not disappear”, but whose devastating effects could be managed by applicant to the vaccination obligation for those over 50 and nursing staff.
The spread of the Omicron variant, now the majority in Luxembourg, thus leads to “a paradigm shift”, note the experts. “Omicron causes a much lower risk of complications than the Delta variant, because the infection seems to mainly affect the upper airways and to a lesser extent the lungs”. Non-vaccinated people with comorbidities, the immunocompromised and the very elderly still present “a significant risk”, but the rest of the population seems to be more spared.
“No Crystal Ball”
Clearly, if a more severe variant is not necessary, the Covid-19 epidemic only represented a lesser danger for a majority of residents, provided that vaccination continues. This is the hoped-for scenario, which nonetheless remains uncertain following the emergence of new variants. “We do not have a crystal ball and it is not excluded that the virus will become more virulent again in the future”, warns Dr. Vic Arendt, infectious disease doctor at the CHL (Luxembourg Hospital Center), specifying that the virulence less attributed to Omicron is also due to “the high rate of vaccination”.
A certain caution which should not encourage pessimism for all that. Dr Claude Muller, expert in virology and immunology at the LIH (Luxembourg Institute of Health) explains that the greater the transmissibility, the less severe the virus. “What’s more, the possibility of the virus mutating is not infinite,” he continues.
Earlier this month, the WHO was concerned about the multiplication of cases of Omicron, fearing the arrival of a more dangerous variant. But the United Nations agency had also declared through its director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus that “2022 must be the year when we end the pandemic”.
(Thomas Holzer/The Essential)
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