We have now been immersed in a pandemic for two years that has caused more than 400 million confirmed cases and more than 5,7 million official deaths, although it is estimated that the real number of deaths amounts to more than 17 million. The main health threats generated by this pandemic will come to an end, as has happened with all previous pandemics. The question is when, how and after how many deaths.
SARS-CoV-2 has animal reservoirs and therefore cannot be eradicated (i.e. removed from the planet). Its main reservoir appears to be the horseshoe bat, but the virus has the ability to infect other non-human species that live with us, such as cats, farm animals, and even game animals.
It is expected that SARS-CoV-2 will continue to circulate among the human population, at least in the near future, and that it will generate new variants that will affect us differently depending on the vaccine coverage of each country and the prevention measures adopted. Recent studies suggest that COVID-19 will behave like a seasonal infection, similar to the flu, and will cause epidemic peaks during the cold months (when more time is spent indoors and there is less ventilation).
It seems that the most likely scenario for the next few years or decades is that the virus becomes endemic, and we will live with it as we do with the other four human coronaviruses that cause common colds, but predicting what will happen in the future has shown be extremely risky throughout this pandemic.
In this debate, we will put all the data on the table and try to shed some light on possible future scenarios. What COVID-19 indicators may be the most relevant from now on? Taking into account the high vaccination coverage in Spain, should we continue to worry about the number of infected people? What do we mean when we talk about flu? Is this a plausible scenario? What differences and similarities could there be with annual flu epidemics, a disease with a vaccine and thousands of deaths annually? What relevant information do the data on other endemic viruses in Spain, such as influenza or RSV, give us?
Speakers:
Moderator:
Ariadna Oltra, journalist and TV3 presenter.