SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – While President Joe Biden seems to think that the worst of the pandemic has passed, some might not share that feeling.
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A recent Gallup poll found that one in three workers still say exposure to the virus at work has them "very" concerned. While this is slightly lower than a similar poll taken last fall, it's still a significant amount.
Looking ahead to the fall and winter months, two-thirds of workers expect infections to increase a great deal, at 26%, or a moderate amount, at 43%, according to the poll.
"For something to be a pandemic it should be something new," Dr. Amesh Adalja, Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security told KCBS Radio’s Melissa Culross on Monday's "Ask an Expert."
"And what ends up happening with many pandemics is that they transition to becoming endemic infectious diseases," he said. "Infections that we deal with year in and year out, day in and day out that have a baseline number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths but are really not anything new."
These diseases become incorporated into the daily risk throughout people's lives.
At this stage of the COVID-19 virus, it seems as if it has made the transition from pandemic to endemic, said Adalja.
The transition point can be narrowed to when hospitals stopped becoming inundated by cases.
"I think that's been the case for a long time – COVID-19 has really become an outpatient illness," he said.
The immunity that the population has collectively reached along with advancements in vaccines and treatments have helped shift the virus from pandemic to endemic.
"I think that's something to celebrate and I agree with the President's sentiments," said Adalja.
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