What happened to those who 'co-existed with COVID-19'? The doctor bluntly said: too irresponsible
"Coexisting with COVID-19", this kind of thing was unthinkable in the past few years, but now, more and more countries choose to "lay flat".
In February this year, the United Kingdom announced the official start of the "coexistence with COVID-19" plan. Patients who tested positive for COVID-19 no longer need to be isolated. Except for vulnerable groups, free testing was also canceled on April 1.
Now, some time after the UK declared its co-existence with COVID-19, how is the situation?
1. The pressure of co-existing with COVID-19 is beyond imagination
Co-existing with COVID-19 sounds wonderful, but the reality is that it is unimaginably stressful. Since the abandonment of the lockdown and strict quarantine measures, the COVID-19 virus has not stopped, making some industries worse and more difficult .
First, the number of cases continues to increase and medical resources are increasingly strained. Secondly, the education sector is also at a loss. Teachers continue to be absent from work due to COVID-19 infection, and the absentee rate of teachers in one-fifth of schools exceeds 15%.
It is also difficult for the agricultural sector, with labor shortages to fill vacancies, crops left to rot in the fields and no one harvesting them, and slaughterhouses with insufficient workers, animals are culled.
Although the catering industry has recovered from the epidemic, the outlook is still unclear. Debts incurred during the epidemic have to be repaid, while raw material and labor costs continue to rise.
After co-existing with COVID-19, the tourism and aviation industry has been booming again, but there is not enough capacity to cope with the growing demand for vacations. Coupled with insufficient staff, some flights have been forced to be cancelled.
In short, the current co-existence of the UK with COVID-19 looks good on the surface, but it is a mess behind the scenes.
Zhao Chenghao, a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering at City University of Hong Kong, believes that the strategy of co-existing with COVID-19 is "too irresponsible."
In February of this year, he unfortunately became an infected person of Omicron. However, before he was diagnosed, he had been working at home, and he didn't know when and where he was infected, which shows how contagious the virus is.
In addition, in Zhao Chenghao's view, co-existing with COVID-19 is not a good thing for young children and the elderly with low immunity. Elderly people account for the majority of deaths, and young children are also at great risk .
Moreover, the current understanding of Omicron is insufficient, and it is uncertain whether it will cause other sequelae, so we should find ways to prevent more people from being infected, so as not to cause greater losses.
Wu Zequan , a general practitioner in Hong Kong, also stated at the UN Human Rights Council that life is priceless, and the method of co-existing with COVID-19 is not the best way to solve the problem of COVID-19, it is tantamount to doing human experiments .
2. Is the COVID-19 virus a "large" flu? unimaginable consequences
Nowadays, there are more and more claims that COVID-19 is just a "big flu". In addition to the United Kingdom and the United States, many countries are also trying to achieve coexistence with COVID-19.
According to media reports, German Federal Minister of Health Lauterbach announced that starting from May 1, people infected with the COVID-19 virus will no longer need to be quarantined, but it is recommended that infected people actively self-isolate for 5 days and avoid contact with others.
However, many expert organizations raised objections to this.
Later, Lauterbach tweeted that the decision to end the mandatory quarantine was wrong, and that COVID-19 is not a big flu, and quarantine must continue after infection .
He pointed out that the previous measures were only to reduce the burden on the health authorities, but judging from the current situation, the number of new infections and deaths is still rising every day, and the danger has not gone away.
Regarding this statement, Liang Wannian, head of the expert group of the National Health and Health Commission's Epidemic Response and Disposal Leading Group, responded that the COVID-19 caused by the Omicron mutant strain is highly contagious and harmful.
Although the chance of severe illness is not high for individuals, overall, if the prevention and control measures are relaxed, the absolute number of infected people will increase, and the probability of severe illness and death will also increase .
3. Herd immunity is difficult to achieve, and dynamic clearing becomes the best strategy
In the past, we have tried to "fight" COVID-19 by achieving herd immunity through vaccination. Dr. Fauci said that the traditional concept of herd immunity may not apply to the COVID-19 virus .
On the one hand, in just over two years, many mutated strains of the COVID-19 virus have emerged; on the other hand, the number of people vaccinated against COVID-19 is far from enough.
In addition, current COVID-19 vaccines are not capable of consummating immunity to the virus. Neither the vaccination nor the immunity caused by infection with COVID-19 is lifelong, which means that if the immunity is to keep up with the virus, it must be vaccinated continuously .
And Wu Zunyou posted that dynamic clearing is the best strategy.
He pointed out that dynamic clearing does not mean zero infection, containment or nucleic acid for all employees, but refers to the discovery of an epidemic, the elimination of an epidemic, and the prevention of the epidemic from taking root, so as to eliminate the epidemic from existence to non-existence.
In short, the core of dynamic zeroing is to cut off the chain of transmission. The main measures include early detection, early reporting, early isolation, and early treatment, so that no sustained transmission occurs locally.
Therefore, judging from the current situation, neither co-existence with COVID-19 nor herd immunity can be achieved for the time being. To stay away from COVID-19, all we can do is to protect ourselves, get vaccinated in time, and cooperate with epidemic prevention work to reduce the risk of infection.
References
[1] "After two months of co-existing with COVID-19, Britain finds that it is different from what it imagined". Central Committee of the Communist Youth League. 2022-04-12
[2] "COVID-19 caused by the Omicron variant is equivalent to a large flu? ". Popular Science China. 2022-03-21
[3] "Wu Zunyou's Latest Interpretation of "Dynamic Clearing": The Best Choice for China's COVID-19 Prevention and Control". Health Times. 2022-04-19
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