Yes. The ommicron variant is also not without danger. “The elderly and people with risk factors can become even more seriously ill. That is why they should be stimulated,” says Huldrych Günthard of the Clinic for Infectious Diseases at the University Hospital Zurich. Hospitals already have a limited bed capacity due to staff shortages. A new strong corona wave would exacerbate the problem. Basel epidemiologist Marcel Tanner recalls that the second booster only recommended by the Vaccination Commission for Risk Groups: for people over 65 and people with corresponding previous diseases of any age.
No, says Hulydrich Gunthard. The most important is boosting, where vaccine is not decisive. The differences between the new vaccines are not huge.
This cannot be ruled out because sub-variants keep appearing that have worrisome mutations in the spike protein. So far, these variants have not become established, nor have they become particularly dangerous. “Since the omicron variants circulating now are not particularly malignant clinically and the new variants appearing on the horizon do not appear to cause a more severe course, I do not believe that a particularly dangerous subvariant will appear in the near future,” says Gunthard. Epidemiologist Marcel Tanner also sees no frightening variant on the horizon at the moment.
On the one hand because of the wave in the spring with the Omicron sub-variants BA.1 and BA.2 and the strong BA.5 wave in the summer. Now the sub-variant BA.5 still clearly dominates. “There are studies that show that an infection with BA.1 and BA.2 offers good protection against BA.5,” says Huldrych Günthard. The population’s immunity to BA.5 is high. Secondly, the nice weather helped this fall. The main effect of the decrease is therefore probably the two natural ommicron waves.
However, one should not forget that there is little testing and the number of unreported cases is very high, says epidemiologist Marcel Tanner. At least a factor of 6. Nevertheless, the trend is downward in cases. Although it is still possible to become infected with omicron, the immune status of the population has increased further due to past infections. But we are not in the cold season yet. How the infection situation is developing can only be better estimated when the majority of people are back inside. “Omikron, any variant, took us from epidemic to endemic last year,” Tanner says.
“Relaxed, yes, but we are not yet in a situation where we no longer have to do anything. The great unknown is still Long Covid,” says Günthard. Lung Covid patients go from doctor to doctor, the costs are high and there is no causal therapy yet. According to Günthard, one should remain cautious and rethink masks in public transport to reduce the burden of Long Covid.
Tanner reminds us that we’ve been living with Omicron for a year now. It was a “blessing” to the course of the pandemic that Omikron replaced Delta. “Delta has made people sicker and also led to more Lung Covid,” says Tanner. Monitoring new variants remains important. “We need to be aware that we still have Corona among us and have to live with that.” That is why certain basic measures such as hygiene or well-thought-out ventilation of the interior spaces remain important even in the winter months.
BA.5’s share was still around 87 percent at the end of October, with a clear downward trend. The variant BQ.1.1. is also estimated to make up 10 percent in this country and BA.2.75 at least 9 percent.
It can be tested in the laboratory how well corona antibodies from recovered patients fight new variants. As for the variants BQ.1.1. and BA.2.75.2 there is bad news: these variants seem to be able to evade existing immunity almost as well as when Omicron first appeared and many already had immunity to Delta. The three new variants are genetically so far removed from the first omicron subvariant BA.1 that this old infection hardly protects anymore – especially since, if you got sick then, it was more than half a year ago. The researchers of a new study led by the American researcher Chengzi Kaku show that the antibodies and B cells of an old BA.1 infection contain the subvariants BQ.1.1. and BA.2.75.2 barely neutralized. The protection after infection with the BA.5 subvariant, which is currently still dominant, should be slightly better than the ones mentioned above – because the new ones evolved from BA.5. Information on this is still lacking.
If a BA.1 infection hardly protects against the newly spreading subvariants, so are booster vaccinations based on BA.1, such as that of Moderna, which is currently being vaccinated in Switzerland. At the end of October, Moderna only sent a so-called success message: compared to the old vaccine, the new booster caused a “superior neutralizing antibody response against Omikron BA.1 for three months”. The evolution of the coronavirus alone is already two steps further. Vaccination may still make sense because it provides some degree of protection against infection, at least for a few weeks. It also refreshes protection against serious diseases.
In general, the hospital death rate is very low. As a rule, it is now mainly seriously ill people. For example, if someone is seriously ill with leukemia, infection with Sars-CoV-2 can lead to death. In intensive care units, however, Covid is no longer a dramatic burden at the moment. But there are still serious cases. Günthard of the University Hospital Zurich tells of an unvaccinated, pregnant woman who got it as “in the old times of Corona”. “But she was lucky, our treatments worked and she was able to leave the intensive care unit and the child was born healthy.”
The early therapies with the Covid drug Paxlovid are successful. According to Günthard, the antibody therapies are no longer as effective as they were in the beginning. In hospitals, combination therapies, including the drug remdesivir, are used, especially for people with severe immunosuppression. “With combination therapies, we have had some good successes at the University Hospital Zurich that we did not have a year and a half ago,” says Günthard. This can prevent hospitalizations and serious courses in at-risk individuals. While there are hardly any effective medicines against flu, people are now therapeutically better off with Covid. But in order to use them optimally, tests must be carried out at an early stage.
Paxlovid is one of the few drugs that works against the current variants. The antiviral, which is a drug that prevents the spread of viruses, helps prevent up to 90 percent of severe corona courses if taken within the first five days of the onset of symptoms. This is rarely done because treating physicians fear reactions with other medications commonly used by the elderly.
It is already known that serious treatments more often lead to long-term complaints, but that young women also often suffer from it after a mild illness. Now there is more specific evidence about whose immune system is more vulnerable and why: A study by the US Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health showed that psychological stress prior to infection significantly increases the risk of long-term covid. The risk was even greater than being overweight, having asthma or high blood pressure.
It was already known that mental illness, as well as loneliness or worry, increase the risk of other respiratory diseases such as the flu or cold. But stress not only weakens the immune system, it may also be that fewer new antibodies are formed after an infection. This is suggested by another study in patients with long-term Covid. (cpf/aargauerzeitung.ch)
source: watson
I’m Maxine Reitz, a journalist and news writer at 24 Instant News. I specialize in health-related topics and have written hundreds of articles on the subject. My work has been featured in leading publications such as The New York Times, The Guardian, and Healthline. As an experienced professional in the industry, I have consistently demonstrated an ability to develop compelling stories that engage readers.
