The End of the Pandemic By John P. Demas, D.D.S. The pandemic is over. The mayor has said so. The governor has said so. Even the president has said so, although he acknowledged that we have a “COVID problem.” The public at large has embraced the idea that the pandemic no longer exists. “Masks? We don’t need no stinking masks.” Not even on crowded (or not so crowded) mass transit. The masks have come off and it seems that everyone is endeavoring to get back to what they perceive should be “normal.” A COVID19 infection is no more dangerous than the flu or a common cold. Some facts: Daily deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. still hover between the mid-three hundreds to low four hundreds (using a rolling sevenday average). So, are we on track to have another million citizens die from COVID-19? No, not at this time, as the herd has, sadly, already been culled to a degree. We are, however, seeing between 2,500 and 2,600 fellow citizens die from COVID-19 each week, which, when one does the math, translates into 10,500 deaths per month and around 126,000 deaths per year. This is not the flu. Annual deaths from the flu in the U.S., averaged over the last decade, are 36,000. The rate at which the Omicron variants are mutating has not slowed as compared to that rate when they first appeared, which means that the virus is still rapidly changing its appearance (and, possibly, its potential to be lethal). All the Omicron subvariants are showing increased transmissibility and properties of immune escape. The XBB and other newer variants are very possibly unaffected by the monoclonal antibody regimens available, which, if this is the case, puts the immunocompromised at even greater risk. All in the public health sector of this country know that we have a “COVID problem.” It is called a pandemic; it has not bid us adieu and it will be with us for a while. While fewer of our loved ones or acquaintances will succumb to it, the numbers are still staggering and the wild card in the entire mix is “long COVID.” We made the acquaintance of this virus less than three years ago. To a very great extent, we are mostly guessing (doesn’t matter that they may be educated guesses, they are guesses all the same) at what predisposes one to lingering effects, how the virus continues to harmour systems, and how to treat the long-term symptoms, simply because it is young and constantly changing. It is, indeed, novel. We will need quite a few more years of data and analysis to get beyond conjecture and anecdotes. Have I written anything that you, as a doctor and scientist, do not already know? I would hope not. So, why did I bother? Mostly to remind us that it should be the science that we should pay attention to, not the politicians and never the television. It is the science that should dictate how we make practice decisions meant to ensure that our offices, our staffs and our patients are all Continued on Page 6 » WWW.SDDSNY.ORG 5
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