Top infectious diseases expert thinks Covid will end in ‘MANY’ years. Here’s why

Good news on Omicron! Top infectious diseases expert shares crucial study

In the wake of the emergence of the new Covid-19 variant, Dr Younus, who’s VP/Chief Quality Officer and Chief of Infectious Diseases at University of Maryland, US, said there’s no single end to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Comparing the latest Covid waves across many countries to earthquakes, he said just like it takes years to rebuild a house after an earthquake destroys a town, the pandemic takes many years, depending upon the effort, to fully end.

“An earthquake can destroy a town instantly but it takes years to rebuild one house at a time. Similarly, even though the pandemic was declared on March 11, 2020, it will fully end over MANY years, one country at a time, depending upon the effort. There’s no single end to COVID,” he tweeted.

Slamming those spreading fake theories like Covid-19 is just a “flu” or “vaccine kills” or “masks are tyranny” or “fear God, not Covid”, Dr Younus shared a caricature, depicting a healthcare worker saving the world from the deadly virus amid some people claiming the virus is a “hoax”. “In reality, it’s even worse than this. Pray for our teams,” he tweeted.

The top infectious diseases expert had shared a piece of “good news” on the new Covid-19 variant Omicron on January 2. He said a recent study conducted in South Africa shows Omicron causes “significantly less” severe disease as compared to the widely prevalent Delta variant of coronavirus.

Dr Younus said a similar pattern of Omicron has been shown in various studies. The data shows acute respiratory symptoms among 31 per cent of Omicron patients as compared to 91 per cent of Delta patients analysed in the study, he said. Duration of hospitalisation was reduced to three days in case of patients infected with Omicron, as compared to seven days among Delta patients, the expert said. Among the Delta patients, 69 per cent required hospitalisations, while it was 41 per cent in the case of Omicron, he added.

Among all those analysed, 30 per cent of Delta patients had to undergo ICU admission, while only 18 per cent of the Omicron patients analysed were admitted to ICU, he added.

Meanwhile, most countries are reporting an unprecedented surge in Covid-19 cases. India on Tuesday witnessed a huge rise in fresh coronavirus positive cases. The country recorded 37,379 new Covid-19 infections and 124 fatalities.

As per the Reuters COVID-19 global tracker, COVID-19 infections are still rising in as many as 103 countries. Countries reporting the most new infections each day are the US (4,85,715), the UK (1,92,016), France (1,62,041), Italy (1,02,571), and Spain (82,391), the data shows. The US (1,308), Russia (885) and Poland (462) and Germany (261) are the countries reporting the most deaths each day.