Recently, sporadic cases of new crown have reappeared in many places in China, and what is more stressful is that the recently discovered new coronavirus variant, Aomi Kerong, has appeared in China. Although the strain is still a single-digit case in China, the number of infections it causes abroad is increasing rapidly, and in some countries it has even surpassed Delta to become an endemic strain. To this end, the G7 health ministers also recently issued a joint statement, saying that the mutated new crown virus Olmicoren strain is the "biggest threat" currently facing the global public health field, and advocating that countries should work more closely together to deal with the development of the epidemic.
According to a British research report, the R value of the infection number of the Omiljun strain has risen to between 3-5, that is, the average number of infections per infected person can infect 3-5 people, while the previous Delta strain's infection number R value was only between 1.1-1.2, which means that the transmission capacity of the Omilton strain is 3-4 times that of Delta. But the good news is that from the current global cases of infection with Omiclon, most of them are mild cases, and their severe infection rates and mortality rates have declined.
What does the evolution of Omikeron mean?
Viruses are actually like us humans, in a sense, creatures on Earth. The structure of the virus is very simple, mainly composed of nucleic acids and proteins, which means that the virus adapts and evolves to the environment much faster. In addition, the virus needs to survive in the host, so every evolution of the virus is actually to be able to survive better. It has been two years since the emergence of the new crown virus, during which time it has passed through Delta to the current Semikron, and each time the transmission ability is increasing, but its lethal ability to the host is weakening. This aspect is due to the nature of the virus itself, which needs to coexist with the host, not kill the host.
On the other hand, with the large-scale vaccination of vaccines, our human body has a certain resistance to the new crown virus, so the evolution of Omi Kerong means that human beings may coexist with the new crown virus for a long time, with the development of time, the new crown virus may be like the flu virus, causing small outbreaks in a specific season and range, but will not pose too much threat to us humans, which is actually China's expert Professor Zhang Wenhong has long predicted.
If COVID-19 is moving towards influenza, do we need to be vaccinated against COVID-19 every year? Will it work in the future?
Many experts at home and abroad have said that from the current point of view, the new crown vaccine is still effective for Omi kerong, and the injection of the new crown vaccine is still the best way to prevent the new crown virus infection. But over time, if the future of the new crown virus flu and we coexist for a long time, I don't think it will necessarily require everyone to be vaccinated every year. Because on the one hand, we will definitely have effective drugs to treat new crown pneumonia in the future, on the other hand, with the decline of virulence, in some people with good resistance, it will not necessarily cause infection. As for whether the COVID-19 vaccine will still be effective in the future? This is even more worrying, because every time our scientists find a mutated strain, they will definitely extract the nucleic acid information of the strain to develop an effective vaccine, so in the future, no matter how the new crown virus mutates, our vaccine will be effective.
When will the global pandemic end?
I believe this is the most concerned issue for everyone, but it is really difficult to say at this stage. This is mainly due to the different response measures and attitudes of countries around the world, not all countries have such an efficient response mechanism as China, and at present, they cannot completely isolate international exchanges of people, but it is certain that scientists around the world are working hard to accelerate the development of specific drugs and develop more efficient vaccines to deal with.
As the coronavirus continues to mutate, do we need to change our epidemic prevention strategies accordingly? At present, experts are also actively discussing, as Professor Zeng Guang, a member of the high-level expert group of the National Health Commission, pointed out: announcing the epidemic situation, it is recommended to add 2 indicators: severe illness rate and mortality, if the severe illness rate and mortality rate of the new crown variant virus is lower than that of the common cold virus, perhaps we need to change our strategy and respond in the best way!
Therefore, even if there is an Omicron in our country, but everyone does not have to worry too much, there is no need to panic, just need to cooperate with the best prevention and control measures of our country, the whole country to maintain the same pace, to achieve zero cases is actually not a problem! And, we believe that the end of the global epidemic will not be too far away!
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