The omicron variant and the surge of COVID-19 cases have hospitals scrambling to keep up.
The question now is when the virus could shift to being treated more like a seasonal disease, such as the flu. When is the pivot point now that vaccines, remedies and antivirals are now available?
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“We don’t know if Omicron is going to be what transforms it into a nuisance virus and a migration toward the common cold, or if we will see more of these newly emerging variants,” said Dr. Roberto Colon, Chief Medical Officer at Miami Valley Hospital.
Colon says it is clear that there will be a delay in coming anywhere close to treating COVID-19 like the cold or flu, and he does not want to make a prediction about when that time might come.
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“What we have learned from Covid is, it is unpredictable, and it is best not to make any of those predictions that we then have to march back,” Colon said.
Colon said this is how medicine works, as research provides more information, and public health recommendations are changed and refined.
For the immediate future, you’ll be able to go to stores for tests and vaccinations, but not for yearly boosters—at least not until the virus is under much more control.