Although the COVID-19 pandemia still continues, the application of the vaccine has lower the deathly effect of the virus. People are still getting infected however they are surviving the effects. Therefore, the next step is learning to live with the virus in order to reduce the risk of infection.
In December 2019, the virus started in Wuhan in China and by 31st December 2019 the WHO (World Health Organization) was alerted.
In January 2020, this new virus was identified as part of the coronavirus family like the SARS (Sever Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and the common cold, and was called COVID-19 (CO – corona, VI – virus, D – disease, 19 – 2019). The coronavirus is spread by inhaling droplets generated by cough or sneeze produced by an infected person, or by touching one’s face or nose after touching a surface contaminated by the virus.
The rate of the infection became a problem and by mid-January there were confirmed cases in United States of America, Nepal, France, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan. Therefore by 30th January 2020 the WHO declared a global emergency as the death toll in China has reached 7,711 infected people.
In March 2020, most countries had applied their own version of self-isolation in order to stop the spreading of the virus by limiting the gathering of the people and stopping people leaving their house only for limited purpose like basic shopping (food and medicine), medical needs and work purpose (if unable to work from home). The UK government had a motto of stay home, protect the NHS and save lives.
In May 2020, most countries saw a drastic reduction of the cases of infection (around 35%) and started considering opening the economy and slowly returning to normality. The aim was stopping the development of hotspots by detecting infection outbreaks at a more localised level and rapidly intervening with targeted measures by introducing a range of adjustment to current social distancing controls, and by timing these carefully according to both the current spread of virus and the government ability to ensure safety will happen in each step. The new UK motto was stay alert, control the virus and save lives.
In September 2020, the world’s economy started to reactivate slowly giving some sectors a bigger importance. In case of Mexico, the government decide to reactivate the economy as all non-essential business were allowed to open up to a 30% capacity including open spaces. In case of UK, the government gave priority to kid’s socialisation so schools were opened for the autumn term on 1st September 2020.
Due to the opening of schools, UK saw a huge increase of infections however, the major contribution of the peak were the university students as they moved from their hometown to their Hall of Residence. The highest infection rate were 20 to 29 year-group followed by 30 to 39 year-group. After this huge peak, new restrictions were imposed in order to avoid further spread of the disease, therefore, a second mandatory self-isolation was imposed.
After UK experimented this huge peak, most countries had a similar problem as they lift the mandatory self-isolation in order to reactivate the economy. The aim was to control the first peak with self-isolation while keeping the economy healthy until the school were ready to open and then this will repeat.
The main problem of returning to normality is the balance between the fear of infection and going out in order to boost the economy. Therefore, the only way to accomplish both is to avoid unnecessary travel and always maintain the basic COVID prevention steps, which are hands, face, space (wash your hands, use face cover, and keep you distance).
In November 2020, the peak kept increasing and a third mandatory self-isolation was imposed in the UK, while other countries also kept their self-isolation in the hope of getting the vaccine as soon as possible in order to keep the most people safe. During this period a third variant was discovered called Delta.
The promise of the vaccine was getting closer as the only way to protect yourself was by creating vaccine and convincing everyone to take it. At this time, 8 vaccines were in phase 3 of their developing, which were the clinical trials.
In December 2020, the vaccination programme started by deploying the vaccine for emergency use by 84 countries including the European Union, Ukraine, Brazil, Mexico, and Singapore. However, some vaccines require low temperature requirements for storage so many countries have searched for other alternative vaccines.
In January 2021, the highest peak of infection showed all over the world however, with the vaccination programme started the hope was for the infection rate to drop significantly within the next few months.
In May 2021, due to the aggressive vaccination programme imposed by all the countries the infection rate reduce by 85%. The countries prioritized vaccination to the vulnerable group and with poor health, therefore by this time 50% of the population of UK and USA had received their first dose of the vaccine while Mexico only 11.5%.
Every country chose their vaccines according to economic relationship because the technology behind the vaccines is amazing regardless of country of fabrication and the best part is that all of them work perfectly. Mexico was very astute about this and bought many different brands of the vaccines and used the according to the needs of the population. For example, the teachers got the CanSino as they only required one dose, the Pfizer was used in urban areas as they required low temperatures for storage, and AstraZeneca in any other areas.
In June 2021, every country was focused in implanting a vaccination programme, and every person older of 18 years was vaccinated. The programme worked so well that the infection rate was reduced drastically and the returned to normality was starting to become a reality.
In November 2021, a new variant was detected called Omicron (7th variant) which turned to be the most contagious of all the other version, however, because of the huge amount of people with the vaccine the amount of the death was not as high as before. They also discovered that the effectiveness of the vaccine wears down around the six-month mark, therefore, the recommendation was that the population to take a 3 dose of the vaccine, booster.
Omicron was discovered in Botswana and has spread on more than half the world’s population. It was classified as variant of concern (VOC) like the Delta. It was considered that reinfection is possible and common, however, those cases are less severe than primary infections if the infection was by the same variant, if not it would be as severe as the primary infection. It was also discovered that due to the restriction applied due to COVID-19 like social distancing and wearing of surgical masks, these have caused a drop in the spread of the common cold and the flu on the population.
In September 2022 and after almost a year, the Omicron variant is still the one active while the infection continuous, the deaths have been reduced due to the application of the vaccine. Although the amount of people death is around 6.5 million, the case fatality rate (CFR is the number of people death in comparison with the number of cases) is only 1.07% which is very low.
However, it is mindful to remember that this is a very contagious disease and up to today there is no cure and the only method of prevention is the vaccine. The table below depicts the infection cases, deaths and case fatality rate around the world.
The vaccination programme implemented by every country has been successful even though there are still people that have chosen no to get the vaccine due to their strong side effects. However, currently most of the people admitted to the hospital due to their sever symptoms is because they neglected to take the vaccine. Although the vaccine has side effects this is because your body is reacting to the foreign substance and that is how you know that the medicine is working. This side effects are present in every vaccine but that is how you know that the medicine is working, so it may be one day of headache for a life-saving medicine.
The COVID-19 vaccine is very strong as you need to remember that the virus is a very contagious disease which happens to be very lethal. The table below depicts the percentage of population vaccinated per country, although the number seems a bit low, you have to remember that currently children under 17 years old are just starting with their vaccination programme.
The vaccine has proved to be the only way to survive the COVID-19 infection as it has been proved to be highly effective. Therefore, it is important to consider getting the vaccine. In any case, the COVID-19 vaccine is still under development and as the research continues the results have found that the in order to keep the protection a regular booster shoot is needed for older people every six months and healthy people every year like the flu-vaccine.
According to the studies, they had found that the combination of 2 different COVID-19 vaccines (also called cross vaccination) provides the protection equivalent to that of an mRNA vaccine (like Pfizer or Moderna). This vaccine also are effective against strong variants like the Delta and the Omicron because they produce a strong immune response with side effects like those caused by the standard regimens.
Currently, most people are vaccinated but the virus is still highly contagious and if infected the symptoms are worse than a common cold. Although most countries have removed all restriction like mandatory self-isolation, it is very recommended to have some basic precautions in order to reduce the risk of infection like: get vaccinated, let fresh air in meeting indoors and consider wearing a face covering in crowded or enclosed spaces.
Currently, I am still in Mexico with my parents’ making preparation for my return to London. Therefore, like I did last year, I needed to check if I needed any travel requirements for my returned to UK and to my surprise all COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, which means that only the normal security and migration restrictions remained as before.
Even though wearing face mask is not a legal requirement anymore, I am still going to continue using mine as I still want to avoid getting infected as the airplane cabin has recycled air. During the last year trip while returning from Mexico, some passengers had COVID-19 even though they summitted a test saying that 48hrs before that they did not have any symptoms. This showed me that airplane cabins are like a petri dish and in order to reduce all virus infections like the flu and the common cold, it is better to use face mask at all the time.
As part of my returned to London research, I found out that the new Autumn Booter vaccination programme has started in September as part of the continuous COVID-19 monitoring in order to keep the entire population safe. As before, the programme starts with people that have the most vulnerable health like:
Residents in care home for older adults and staff working in care homes.
Frontline health and social care workers.
All adults of 50 years and over.
For people between 5 and 49 years old with clinical risk group (like diabetes, etc so check with your GP).
For people between 16 and 49 years old who are carers.
Therefore, if you fit any of the criteria above, please book your appointment online and attend your appointment on your nearest COVID-19 vaccination centre (https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/book-coronavirus-vaccination/).
Even though Omicron variants has caused the most cases of infection until now, the vaccine has proved good enough to cover all the known variants. The problem is that as with every disease, every new variant is stronger than the one before that is why the booster take all this information in order to predict any future variants and that is why they are effective for the next variant. This is the same case that the flu vaccine applies and the reason behind your yearly flu-vaccine dose (seasonal booster).
Therefore, my recommendation is continued with the COVID-19 vaccination programme of your country by getting the booster vaccine when is available to you depending of your health criteria. However, if you decided that you do not want the vaccine just be aware that all infectious diseases are lethal and opting out the vaccine programme is contraindicated as there is no cure for those diseases. Save the world by protecting yourself and your family of this and any other future disease by simply taking the vaccine. Therefore, be patient that this is going to take a while for this pandemic to resolve.
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