(ORDO NEWS) — We are all tired of the pandemic, but they say that Omicron is the last serious strain of COVID-19, after which the infection will become no more dangerous than seasonal flu. Is it true?
It seems that Omicron is the latest variant of the coronavirus. However, experts agree that a new mutation, even more contagious, will soon appear.
The Omicron strain did turn out to be much less lethal than Delta. However, it spreads too quickly and with symptoms of infection, hundreds of thousands of people stay at home and end up in hospitals.
Although this option turned out to be less lethal, it created a new wave of infections and dramatically increased the burden on the healthcare system.
However, according to several virologist experts, Omicron is not the last option. Most likely, the coronavirus will continue to mutate, and a new dangerous strain will evolve from another variant.
“There is no reason to believe that genetically the virus has run out of options,” said Karthik Chandran, a virologist and professor of microbiology and immunology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. “I expect we will see more options and we will see similar waves of infections.”
But while the next variant may learn to spread faster and trick the immune system, it remains unclear how the severity of the disease it causes will change. Future options may gain a competitive advantage in several ways. Theoretically, one of these potential trajectories could lead to a more virulent but less virulent strain than Omicron.
From the point of view of distribution and survival, it is generally not very beneficial for viruses to kill the host, because then he loses the opportunity to penetrate into the body of even more people.
Therefore, it is likely that the following strains will be even more contagious, but less dangerous. Stephane Bancel, CEO of the vaccine manufacturer Moderna, shares the same opinion:
“There is an 80% chance that as the omicron strain or SARS-CoV-2 as a whole spreads and mutates, we will see less and less virulent viruses,” he said .
Today, no one knows how the COVID-19 pandemic will end. We just have to keep the safety measures.
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