Some doctors said as we enter year two of the coronavirus pandemic, the focus needs to shift as COVID-19 starts to become an endemic disease. || COVID-19 updates | Maryland’s latest numbers | Get tested | Vaccine Info ||Doctors said the world will never look like 2019 again, COVID-19 will always be around but doctors said it might not continue to be so disruptive since there are better tools to fight COVID-19 than the flu. “The goals with COVID-19 in 2022 really should be about making sure we’re preventing severe disease,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.Adalja said that means shifting the focus from the number of cases and transmission to the number of hospitalizations.”It’s going to be hard because the general public has sort of been attuned to this abstinence-only approach where any case becomes a five-alarm fire and that’s not going to be the case any longer,” he said. | RELATED: COVID-19 TESTING: Where to get tested, get test kits in MarylandAdalja said COVID-19 isn’t going anywhere but will likely transition this year to endemic status, meaning it’s always around but we have tools to fight it — things like monoclonal antibody treatments, antivirals and most importantly, vaccines. But Adalja recognizes there will always be unvaccinated people.”We’re going to have to still work on them on a one-on-one basis, maybe second-generation vaccines or different vaccines might be what pushes them over the edge and gets them vaccinated,” he said. “When you’re dealing with COVID-19 in vaccinated populations, it is a mild disease, one that’s not really one to worry so much about.”By the end of 2022, he suspects home tests will be widely available so people can test whenever they want and antiviral pills and monoclonal antibodies should be much more widely available later this year, allowing high-risk individuals to get them much more quickly. He thinks treating COVID-19 will soon be like treating any other respiratory virus like the flu.”I think we’ll be in a position where we’re no longer worrying about hospital capacity on a day-to-day basis. I think we’ll be at the point where we have enough tools to keep people out of the hospital,” Adalja said. “There will still be flare ups and hotspots that occur, but they won’t be of the same caliber, they won’t be of the same alarm.”Adalja said there will still be variants that emerge, but they shouldn’t undo all of the tools and knowledge gained.
BALTIMORE —
Some doctors said as we enter year two of the coronavirus pandemic, the focus needs to shift as COVID-19 starts to become an endemic disease.
|| COVID-19 updates | Maryland’s latest numbers | Get tested | Vaccine Info ||
Doctors said the world will never look like 2019 again, COVID-19 will always be around but doctors said it might not continue to be so disruptive since there are better tools to fight COVID-19 than the flu.
“The goals with COVID-19 in 2022 really should be about making sure we’re preventing severe disease,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Adalja said that means shifting the focus from the number of cases and transmission to the number of hospitalizations.
“It’s going to be hard because the general public has sort of been attuned to this abstinence-only approach where any case becomes a five-alarm fire and that’s not going to be the case any longer,” he said.
| RELATED: COVID-19 TESTING: Where to get tested, get test kits in Maryland
Adalja said COVID-19 isn’t going anywhere but will likely transition this year to endemic status, meaning it’s always around but we have tools to fight it — things like monoclonal antibody treatments, antivirals and most importantly, vaccines.
But Adalja recognizes there will always be unvaccinated people.
“We’re going to have to still work on them on a one-on-one basis, maybe second-generation vaccines or different vaccines might be what pushes them over the edge and gets them vaccinated,” he said. “When you’re dealing with COVID-19 in vaccinated populations, it is a mild disease, one that’s not really one to worry so much about.”
By the end of 2022, he suspects home tests will be widely available so people can test whenever they want and antiviral pills and monoclonal antibodies should be much more widely available later this year, allowing high-risk individuals to get them much more quickly.
He thinks treating COVID-19 will soon be like treating any other respiratory virus like the flu.
“I think we’ll be in a position where we’re no longer worrying about hospital capacity on a day-to-day basis. I think we’ll be at the point where we have enough tools to keep people out of the hospital,” Adalja said. “There will still be flare ups and hotspots that occur, but they won’t be of the same caliber, they won’t be of the same alarm.”
Adalja said there will still be variants that emerge, but they shouldn’t undo all of the tools and knowledge gained.