Fauci: It’s too early to say whether Omicron will push the pandemic to an end

Experts are looking at the crystal ball of COVID to predict where the Omicron variant will lead America, but the picture is still unclear.

White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci said on Monday it was “an open question” whether Omicron was the last wave of variants to disrupt normal life, reports CNBC. Asked if the highly contagious variant could spread widely enough to hasten the end of the pandemic, Fauci said, “I hope so. But that’s only the case if they do. I don’t get another variant that suppresses the immune response. of the previous one.”

Meanwhile, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has predicted a “return to normal life” in the spring, reports Fox Business, quoting an interview with a French newspaper Le figaro. Bourla argues that the COVID-19 antiviral drug under development could work alongside a vaccine to prevent severe illness. Separately, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said the company’s combined COVID-19 and flu vaccine could launch in the fall of 2023, per CNN.

Other experts, such as Annelies Wilder-Smith of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, say it is “too early” to call COVID endemic, but predict “there is a high probability that we will have a variable”. new form” earlier, although it is likely to be less severe.

Regardless of the murky post-Omicron pandemic, all agree that while still capturing the current variation, we should focus first on overcoming our immediate future. General Surgeon Vivek Murthy alert Sunday that this record-setting wave has yet to peak, and declared “the next few weeks will be very difficult.”