Humans have never eliminated a species to achieve the goal of controlling infectious diseases.
Could Omicron be the chosen poison?
On December 17, at the high-end forum of clinical microbiology and infectious diseases in China and the United States, Professor Zhang Wenhong, director of the Department of Infectious Diseases of Shanghai Huashan Hospital, said that after the birth of influenza from the world, it has gradually reached a balance with our human immune system, with our human vaccination and widespread infection, it will maintain a certain steady state with infectious diseases, and the new crown virus will also be the same, human beings have never eliminated a species to achieve the goal of controlling infectious diseases.
For a highly contagious virus, eliminating it, dynamic zeroing it has never been an easy thing to do, coexistence with the virus, universal immunity is the only way for human evolution, not to human will as a transfer.
Zhang Wenhong said that with the acceptance of the vaccine, there is a very great pressure on the evolution of the new crown virus, the number of evolution has been greatly reduced, and finally Omicron won, its immunity to humans has a certain escape, the R0 value has reached the level of 16-18, and it is very difficult to evolve a faster spreading strain from Omicron. Judging from the data in Shanghai, the Omicron strain has shown a significant trend of decreasing virulence.
Although the toxicity is reduced, it is still a virus, and attacks on vulnerable people still exist, especially people over 80 years old, with serious underlying diseases, and at the moment of the peak of infection at this stage, the elderly should have very good protection.
How to better protect these people, Zhang Wenhong emphasized vaccination, timely administration of drugs after infection with symptoms, and as little as possible to get close to them. Children should be especially cautious when visiting the elderly, who suspend people-intensive activities such as square dancing to avoid the risk of infection by reducing mobility.
Omicron was first detected in South Africa on November 9, 2021, and has since spread rapidly and widely around the world. In March 2022, it spread in many cities in the mainland, which is known as the silent management of Shanghai, and then it is now free of our coexistence.
The Omicron variant emerged in South Africa, where vaccination rates lagged far behind the world average of only 42.1%. It can be said that Omicron has accelerated the global march towards universal immunity, and the virus also needs to survive and coexist with the host.