A wave of feeling across Europe, more infectious than coronavirus, wants to declare the pandemic over and be treated like the common cold.
COVID-19 would be downgraded from a global killer virus to the seasonal sniffles you have to live with by taking medication that doesn’t work.
There are growing calls in Europe for coronavirus to be treated as an endemic illness, like the flu.
Countries like Spain and the UK have suggested it’s time to reevaluate COVID.
Cyprus is too busy dithering on its test to stay policy for close contacts in schools to chart an exit out of the pandemic.
Experts warn it is too early to celebrate victory against the cunning virus because it works in mysterious ways.
Although some clever scientists are tracking this disease, COVID-19 is a shapeshifter; it can warp into different variants to survive.
Omicron became the dominant variant in our community with supposedly milder symptoms.
The highly infectious COVID spin-off sent daily cases spiralling to a record high of 5,457 in early January.
Hospitals filled up with mainly unvaccinated patients, and the death toll also rose.
Some argue that Omicron being a milder version might signal the beginning of the end of coronavirus.
Others remind us that the more severe Delta variant hasn’t gone away and might be preparing a comeback as Omicron wanes.
We also assume that coronavirus has given up the fight, preferring to sit by the log fire and smoke some weed through the winter.
This nasty little blighter is waiting for us to make the mistakes, feel out of danger, drop our masks, and socialise.
As soon as our hygiene standards drop – bam – it’s back through the front door, causing mayhem.
There are also high-risk groups to worry about who have weak immune systems, heart disease or diabetes.
Scientists believe these groups might need a fourth top-up, an extra boost to the booster shot.
But this depends on the numbers needing hospitalisation.
And how strong is our immunity wall to fight the good fight?
Would a large slice of the population need to get jabbed annually to prevent them from getting COVID?
COVFLU
Should there be a double-dose COVFLU jab?
I’m sure a Cypriot expert will invent one like they discovered the DeltaCron variant that everybody ridiculed.
We know that COVID immunity doesn’t last, and we are not too sure how it behaves because it’s a fairly new disease that shouldn’t have happened.
And you can bet your Sunday lunch that once we have nailed COVID to the lab floor, another mystery virus will fill the void.
Most of us have been jabbed more than once to get high on immunity, but there’s no telling how long it will last like any artificial high.
We want to declare it the end of days for coronavirus, but the science is still unknown; it’s a guessing game that only time can solve.
People are still dying of COVID, but the cases are gradually declining, although if 2,000 daily infections were reported last year, it would have caused a lockdown.
I remember panicking when the first daily peak was 52 cases; then over 100, now we nonchalantly shrug our shoulders when it is in the thousands among a million population.
For now, the World Health Organization and other officials have warned the world is nowhere near the COVID-19 end game.
Diseases are endemic when they occur regularly according to established patterns, while a pandemic is a global panic that causes unpredictable waves of illness.
A WHO expert said prescribing coronavirus as an endemic disease is still “a ways off” as the virus evolves quickly, creating uncertainty.
Designating a disease as endemic allows countries to refocus elsewhere in a health system dismantled by the virus.
Lifting a public health emergency allows resources to go back to treating cancer patients and reducing the backlog of routine but life-enhancing operations.
Only once the COVID fog disperses will we be able to survey the damage it has done to our public and mental health.
It is only a matter of time before the most wealthy countries decide to end the white-knuckle ride in the confidence they have the weapons and experience to curb any fresh outbreak.
The WHO does not technically declare pandemics, so I’m not sure it can safely say when one is over.
For starters, poorer countries are short on vaccines and medical resources to tackle the onslaught.
COVID was a moment when the world should have joined together to save itself…it didn’t quite happen like that.
