The Passing Pandemic? Perspective and Projections for COVID-19

Abstract

Impact of Pandemic on Realms of Human Life: It is hard to imagine a worse pandemic than COVID-19 which has affected not only health but every realm of human life, being the most disruptive pandemic in modern times.In fact, the pandemic seems like a singular, once-in-a-lifetime event, and ongoing with no definite end in sight. As such, greater protective measures are needed to fight off the highly contagious variants and develop more effective therapeutic modalities to improve the disease outcomes. Research, Rationality and Mass Hysteria: Fundamentally, the viruses outnumber all the members of animal and plant kingdom including bacteria. The public-health measures are age-old and general rather than specific and aimed initially at stemming the tide of the novel virus and have been applied including avoiding close and non-ventilated spaces. COVID-19 is not the deadliest pandemic, HIV has killed more people than SARS-CoV-2, yet the pandemic is accompanied by a mass hysteria. The Mutagenesis and Emerging Variants: SARS-CoV-2 has a steady rate of mutations and accumulates mutations over time. The evolving variants affect the transmissibility, disease severity, immune response, and resultant immunity. The emerging variants have either replaced the previous ones or de-escalated depending on their properties. A number of variants are associated with immune escape. The variants pose a challenge for preventive measures including the vaccination and therapeutics. Omicron: Priming for Immunity or Disaster: The omicron variant (B.1.1.529) was first reported from African continent and later spread to various geographical regions. It has been held a benign variant with an increased transmissibility, reduced disease severity, and ability to generate a potent immunity. As a matter of caution, the fast-spreading Omicron sand its subvariant, BA.2 with their unexplored impact on immune system may be priming the population groups for infection with deadlier variants. Conclusion: Dealing With the Challenges: For COVID-19, the immunity following infection or vaccination is variable and short-lived, as it declines over time. Presently, with evolving variants including Omicron and BA.2 and recurrent outbreaks, the challenge posed by the pandemic is not over. In fact, the end of the pandemic is not a discrete event like conclusion of a war but a gradual process in which with herd immunity and the virus becoming less morbid and lethal, the disease deescalates to endemic form.