How To Avoided Covid 19 In 2022

How To Avoided COVID-19 In 2022

 

Get the latest on COVID-19 from infectious diseases expert Marc Rupp, M.D., including rates of COVID-19 cases, types of variants spreading, and updates on the vaccine. Strong data continues to indicate COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective in keeping people from becoming critically ill and dying. Evidence shows those who have been vaccinated and have been reinforced are still protected from serious illness, hospitalization, and death -- even from recent variants.

 Primary immunization with 2 doses of the mRNA vaccine provides a limited degree of protection against the symptoms caused by Omicron, which increases significantly with a booster.7 The mRNA vaccine provides similar levels of protection against BA.1 and BA.2, though protection against infections and symptoms fades in months following a third dose.8 In contrast, vaccine-associated protection against severe illness, including hospitalization and death, remains robust. Although novel versions of Omicron can infect even vaccinated individuals with greater ease, vaccination continues to significantly decrease adverse outcomes from infection for the majority.

 Failure to widely vaccinate also allows continued COVID-19 circulation and generation of variants, including some that can be more dangerous. Another challenge to communicating the importance of COVID-19 vaccination is that younger adults are generally less clinically affected by COVID-19 infections, and may therefore perceive limited value in getting vaccinated, including until additional data validate vaccines are transmission-preventing and that vaccines are effective against variants. A majority of parents of children younger than age five said that they did not have sufficient information on the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines for children at that age (56%).

 

A quarter of adults are still not being vaccinated, including roughly one-in-six (17%) who say they will not get vaccinated at all, a share that has not changed significantly over the nearly 18 months that the survey has been conducted. The latest KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitoring Survey finds that three-in-four adults (75%) say they have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, a share that has continued to be relatively stable since last September.

The US COVID-19 response strategy has focused on preventing infections. Vaccination has been shown to help decrease deaths and serious illnesses due to COVID-19, as well as to decrease COVID-19 transmission. Mutations found in the Omicron and Omicron subvariants are associated with not only increased transmissibility, but immune evasion, either by vaccination or by post-infection immunity.

 This would mitigate some of the burden that the virus has placed on even the strongest healthcare systems. Even once shed immunity is achieved, continued surveillance, potential revaccination, and management of isolated cases will continue to be necessary to manage COVID-19 risks.

 The threshold to reach herd immunity for COVID-19 is the proportion of a population required to have developed disease immunity in order to prevent continued future transmission. A goal of 60 per cent of each country's population being vaccinated by March 2022 is probably enough to achieve global herd immunity in the base case of a small number of mutations.

 As we monitor virus evolution, the WHO and partners will continue to carefully evaluate and monitor the impact of viral evolution on public health interventions, including diagnostics, therapeutics, and COVID-19 vaccines. Inequity in vaccines, inconsistencies in public health measures, and novel variants like Omicron are prolonging the COVID-19 pandemic, but controlling the virus remains possible.