Another New Year’s Eve, which will be spent in the shadow of COVID-19, is approaching. In fact, according to an expert, we should expect New Year’s or Christmas periods to be interrupted for the next five years due to the ongoing epidemic.
Speaking online as part of the Royal Society of Medicine COVID-19 series, King’s College London professor of genetic epidemiology Tim Spector says the infection will continue to be found in human populations despite high vaccination rates. We can influence how high these rates are depending on the measures we take, but he says current measures in his home country, the UK, are completely “inadequate”.
“I think we need to understand that this isn’t just this Christmas, but maybe even the Christmases of the next five years, if we think realistically,” says Spector, chief scientist at the ZOE COVID study application. We have better information than a year ago when we thought, ‘Everything is going to be okay.’ And it’s becoming clear that that’s not the case.”
“We are aware that vaccines alone are not the ultimate solution for this. We need a combination of measures,” says the scientist. and that will spread to a certain degree in our populations.”
Spector also reveals that he is not very hopeful for the coming years, saying, “How high we want these rates to be is partly determined by our own peace of mind and the relaxation of some of the rules we apply. Last year, I actually thought they were exceeded; now this year I think they are insufficient.”
Spector is talking about the UK here, but a similar situation applies to other countries. Scientists aren’t sure how this winter will turn out in the US, but some are preparing for the worst. While nearly 60 percent of the U.S. population over the age of 12 is fully vaccinated, experts say that as of November 11, concerns about the virus have subsided among the public, meaning many are lax against prevention measures, with large gatherings especially for Thanksgiving and the holiday period and people making up for lost time in the past year. He states that he will take a stand. The presence of the highly contagious Delta variant this year also needs to be taken into account.
Washington University professor of health measurement sciences Ali Mokdad, on the other hand, made a statement to the Associated Press last week, saying, “Delta and decreased immunity – the combination of these two left us behind. This virus will stay with us for a long, long time.”
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