SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – President Joe Biden was confirmed positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, with mild symptoms reported, and cases around the country continue to rise in the latest surge.
For more, stream KCBS Radio now.
In the wake of new cases, some are concerned just how well the vaccines will be able to stand up against the new variants as they continue to evolve.
The primary function of the vaccine is to prevent serious illness and hospitalization and death from the COVID-19 virus.
"Anything else they do is sort of extra," said Dr. Amesh Adalja, Senior Scholar at Johns Hopkins University's Center for Health Security on KCBS Radio's "Ask an Expert" on Thursday with Melissa Culross.
"Early on they were doing really well at preventing infection but that's become less so the case with the advent of the omicron variant," he said.
But the vaccines have been instrumental in keeping hospitalizations and deaths related to the virus more at bay in the recent surges. "That's why we can have cases so high but not seeing hospitals worrying about capacity the way they once did," said Adalja.
Breakthrough infections, which occur after someone gets the virus event though they've been vaccinated, are becoming increasingly common. But while vaccines do not necessarily prevent breakthrough infections altogether, they are able to make them less severe.
For those who are experiencing pandemic fatigue after more than two years, there is no one-size fits all approach for how to continue to keep themselves safe while staying sane.
Each person needs to evaluate their own risk factors and risk tolerance and adjust accordingly, said Adalja.
It may help for people to "take stock of how far we've come with COVID-19," he said. "We've got vaccines, boosters, rapid tests, monoclonal antibodies, antivirals, all of which make COVID-19 a very manageable infection in a way that it wasn’t in the earlier stages of this pandemic."
"That should give people some comfort," he said. "The human species has adjusted and acclimatized to it by bringing medicine and science to bear – to make it something that is not what it once was."
Despite the hardships and the ongoing changes in the virus, people should take solace that in the grand scheme of things, we made it through the pandemic and science excelled in this area, he said.
At this point, it's fair to say that we have reached the endemic stage, according to Adalja, as hospitals are no longer in crisis.
"That's what characterizes and endemic from a pandemic type of infection," he said. "Meaning that we don't see influenza putting a hospital out of business – and that's what was happening with COVID-19 in the past. We're no longer seeing it."
This is a signal that although the virus is not going anywhere any time soon, it's manageable now and no longer as disruptive to public health as it was.
The virus has changed a slew of things in everyday life, from outdoor seating at restaurants to people continuing to wear masks in crowded places, which will have a positive impact on the spread of other respiratory viruses.
"Some of this is going to be good," said Adalja, "That people worry about air and ventilation, all of that is going to have impacts beyond COVID-19."
DOWNLOAD the Audacy App
SIGN UP and follow KCBS Radio
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Related
