Covid-19: endemic doesn’t mean harmless (24 January 2022)

Summary

In this article for Nature, Aris Katzourakis, Professor of Evolution and Genomics at the University of Oxford, highlights misconceptions around the word 'endemic' that have arisen during the Covid-19 pandemic. He defines an endemic infection as "one in which overall rates are static — not rising, not falling," and highlights that we have come to associate this with less harmful illnesses such as the common cold, when in fact it can also be applied to deadly diseases including malaria, polio and tuberculosis.

He argues that the word has been misused by policymakers to indicate that the virus poses less threat and therefore no action needs to be taken. In order to tackle the ongoing threat of Covid-19, the author suggests the following four actions:

1. Set aside lazy optimism
2. Be realistic about the likely levels of death, disability and sickness. Targets set for reduction should consider that circulating virus risks giving rise to new variants
3. Use the weapons we have available, globally: effective vaccines, antiviral medications, diagnostic tests and a better understanding of how to stop an airborne virus through mask wearing, distancing, and air ventilation and filtration
4. Iinvest in vaccines that protect against a broader range of variants