Buffalo, NY (WBEN) What will 2022 bring in the fight against COVID? A pair of area doctors are optimistic things will get better. In fact, there's a possibility COVID could be treated similarly to a more common ailment.
At the University of Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine, Dr. Thomas Russo has a good feeling about 2022. "I think there's little doubt that 2022 will certainly be a better year than this one," says Russo. But he says it's critical for the world to get some level of immunity via vaccination.
"As long as we're having cases, the virus has the ability to mutate and evolve into a new variant. Having said that, we're slowly gaining in terms of people gaining protection. When the world has a good level of protection, we're going to shift out of pandemic phase to endemic phase, with low levels of cases with bumps during respiratory virus season like influenza."
Russo says it's difficult to say if another variant will happen. "I'm hoping Omicron will be the end of it, but until we get to the point of people getting vaccinated, that remains a possibility," says Russo.
Dr. Nancy Nielsen is hopeful the Omicron variant will overtake Delta everywhere in the world. "Then the disease will become a relatively mild disease," says Nielsen. "We'll have it in one variant or another for the foreseeable future, but it would be wonderful if Omicron just took over and is milder," she adds. Nielsen says everyone will get Omicron one way or another.
"The question is, how is your body going to respond to it. If you're vaccinated, you will come into contact and it won't infect your or give you minimal symptoms," hopes Nielsen.
What will this mean for mask mandates and vaccine proof requirements?
"Probably what will happen is we will deal with coronavirus the way we deal with flu, so we may have an annual immunization to protect us," says Nielsen. "There are countries in the world where people wear masks throughout the winter out in public. We may see that more on public transportation and we won't need mandates, it will be more common sense." Nielsen hopes common sense prevails and people stop debating about the things that are not as important and focus on protecting themselves.
Russo believes there's a reasonable likelihood mask mandates could go away in 2022. "Once we get into the endemic phase, we'll be able to strip away the public health measures that have been put in place. Let's hope we get there," says Russo.
Nielsen adds once oral drugs being used to treat COVID become available on a more widespread basis, that will help keep those infected out of the hospital.
