Comments
Precautionary doses will be made available to those under 60 years of age with comorbidities very soon, said Naresh Trehan, Chairman and Chief Cardiac Surgeon, Medanta – The MediCity, who is also on the 12-member Covid-19 Task Force set up by the Supreme Court in an exclusive interaction with BusinessLine. He also made a case for the vaccination of children as young as two years. Excerpts:
Is 2022 the year when the global pandemic will end? Cases have come down significantly from the peak. Where do you see things going forward from here?
The truth is that nobody knows what will happen next. But when we try to study the pattern of viral infections, this happens in a pandemic. Learning from history, from the Spanish flu, we understand that it gets weaker before it dissipates. What we have right now is a different animal which we don’t fully understand, whether it will come with a new avatar or not. We had thought we were done with Delta, so nobody knew that Omicron would be so infectious. It has devastated the world again.
Still the symptoms are very mild in this wave driven by Omicron….
There are still enough people who get more severe symptoms, especially those with comorbidities. There are enough people who are suffering. It is not that it is so mild that there is a two-day fever and then it goes away. It doesn’t happen like this to everybody. In the hospitals, we see more serious cases. Omicron has taken over the US and there are many deaths happening there. That’s why we shouldn’t take it lightly. This is basically the lesson to learn — that till it really establishes a pattern, we can not really be 100 per cent sure.
Also read
There was a recent study by ICMR which said that the delta variant will fade away because of the significant immune response generated by those infected with the Omicron variant. What would you like to say on this?
Nobody has a crystal ball to look into the future. You know they have just discovered the BA.2 sub-variant which may be more transmissible. So it’s difficult to predict anything as an expert. So I am giving a caveat that till we see the back of it, we should not let our guard down. We should not invite it again. Masks should be worn for now and till the end of this month unless anything new happens. Nobody knew about the Omicron but it came. So it is difficult to say anything.
Currently, only those who are frontline, healthcare workers, and those above 60 years of age with comorbidities are eligible for the precautionary doses. Some deaths are being recorded among those below 60 years of age with comorbid conditions. Do you think the third dose policy should be expanded to others also?
Very soon, those who are below 60 years of age and have comorbidities will start getting precautionary doses. There is enough vaccine adequacy in the country. Gradually, vaccination will be opened up for everybody. As the vaccines get approved, children below the age of 12 years will also be vaccinated. We are waiting for clinical trial data of younger children as young as two years old. They will also be made eligible for vaccination few months later. In America, it will be started soon for children under the age of five.
Lately, a slight increase has been noticed in daily Covid deaths while a simultaneous fall is also there in day-to-day cases. Can you explain the reason behind this?
There are some patients with prolonged illness who never got better from the previous wave who are dying in this wave. It’s not like there are no deaths due to Omicron. It’s not that Omicron is free of complications. People with comorbidities are still vulnerable.
Are the existing vaccines effective against the mutated variants?
This cat and mouse game will go on. Vaccine manufacturers are tweaking their vaccines and the viruses are also mutating. This war will go on for sometime.
What does living with Covid look like?
It will be like a flu syndrome every year. Hopefully, going forward, Covid will become seasonal and milder. But there will still be deaths because people with other health conditions like asthma will fall victim as they do to the flu every year.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.