The Covid it will become endemic in 2024, Pfizer executives said Friday. Which means that the virus will go from a global emergency to a constant presence causing regional outbreaks around the world, much like the flu.
Covid 2024: would reach endemic level when populations have sufficient immunity to vaccines
“We believe that Covid will transition to an endemic state, potentially by 2024.” Nanette Cocero, global president of Pfizer Vaccines, said during an investor call on Friday.
Covid-19 would reach endemic level when populations have sufficient immunity to vaccines. As well as previous infections to keep transmissions, hospitalizations and deaths under control even when the virus circulates.
“When and how exactly this happens will depend on the evolution of the disease. The effectiveness with which society implements vaccines and treatments, and equitable distribution in places where vaccination rates are low ”. Said Pfizer Chief Scientific Officer Mikael Dolsten. “The emergence of new variants could also affect how the pandemic continues to unfold.”
The timing of Covid’s transition to an endemic state could vary from place to place, according to Dolsten.
“It seems that over the next year or two, some regions will go into an endemic pattern. While other regions will continue in pandemic mode, ”said Dolsten.
The comments from Pfizer executives come as the United States battles a surge in Covid cases led by the delta variant, while the omicron strain spreads rapidly. The seven-day average of new hospital admissions for Covid was up 4% from the previous week, Centers for Disease Control Director Rochelle Walensky said at a briefing at the White House on Friday.
An endemic disease?
That Covid-19 becomes an endemic disease means that it will be present regularly in the country. That is the signal that we have of the epidemic curve whose reduction speed has become slower, according to information from the Ministry of Health (Ssa).
But what exactly is an endemic virus?
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). They include the definition of this and other terms in the field of epidemiology on their website.
Endemic “refers to the constant presence and / or habitual prevalence of a disease or infectious agent in a population of a geographic area,” explains the CDC.
They also include the term “hyperendemic,” which refers to persistent and high levels of disease occurrence.
In the words of Rosalind Eggo, an infectious disease scholar at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “The endemic infection is present in an area permanently, throughout the year, all the time, year after year.”
The existence of an endemic virus should not be confused with that of an epidemic or a pandemic
Epidemic: an increase in cases followed by a peak and then a decrease.
Pandemic – An epidemic that occurs around the world at about the same time.
In fact, in Mexico the pandemic is approaching the lowest level it has had since the beginning of the pandemic, which was registered in mid-May 2021. When the second wave ended. At the end of that month, the rise in the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (third wave) began again.
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