{"id":64504,"date":"2022-02-08T15:49:05","date_gmt":"2022-02-08T22:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=64504"},"modified":"2022-02-10T11:17:03","modified_gmt":"2022-02-10T18:17:03","slug":"endemic-in-sight-due-to-omicron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2022\/02\/08\/endemic-in-sight-due-to-omicron\/","title":{"rendered":"Endemic in sight due to Omicron"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Healthcare Crisis:<\/strong>: The entrance to Foothills Medical Centre, Calgary, is pictured on Jan. 26, 2021. The hospital, similar to many others in the city, is experiencing numerous surgery cancellations due to rising COVID-19 cases as well as staff shortages due to illness. (Photo by Jason Jimenez\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

S<\/span>ince the Omicron variant was first introduced to Canada in late November last year, the total case count skyrocketed \u2013 but some experts believe the end is in sight.<\/p>\n

The government of Canada\u2019s health website currently states the total case count as 2,921,385, going up almost a million cases since Boxing Day, when it was 2,000,976.<\/a> And with thousands of unreported rapid tests being used, the actual number of positive cases is likely much higher. Despite this, some believe COVID-19 is already transitioning from a pandemic to an endemic.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>COVID-19 will be a problem we\u2019ll have to deal with annually, similar to the flu,\u201d said Glen Armstrong, a professor of immunology and infectious disease at the University of Calgary.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to learn to live with this for many generations, because that\u2019s what it means for it to be endemic \u2013 it\u2019s now just something that is always there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A survey by Nature, a British scientific journal, shares the same opinion.<\/a> The journal\u2019s immunologists, infectious disease researchers, and virologists working on SARS-CoV-2 agree that they expect the coronavirus to become endemic, with some even saying it would be possible to eliminate the virus entirely from some parts of the world.<\/p>\n

Armstrong also said that viruses, over time, tend to evolve to be in a less pathogenic state with their host \u2013 similar to the now-harmless bacteria living in our gut and skin.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re already seeing it with Omicron,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not causing a serious illness as some of the original variants, like Delta \u2013 so that evolutionary process is already happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

The good news, Armstrong believes, is that the pandemic has been a much-needed wake-up call for everybody.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince we\u2019ve been able to successfully control past diseases with antibiotics and vaccines, we were lulled into a sense of complacency,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the severity of COVID has made our healthcare system more robust \u2013 enabling us to better handle future problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, our hospitals are still being pushed to their limits. This week in Alberta, there are 1,191 hospitalizations due to infection \u2013 the highest since the pandemic began.<\/p>\n

Dr. Donna Wilson, a professor of nursing at the University of Calgary, warns of indirect dangers implicated by COVID-19 on our healthcare.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur system has had to put a lot more emphasis on looking after people who are infected with COVID, which means that all of the surgeries, heart conditions, cancer conditions, lung conditions, and all the rest of that really got put on hold,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis means we could have huge health problems in the future due to a delay in needed care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson then expressed her concern for the effects of burnout and fatigue in the thousands of healthcare workers across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust trying to survive the experience of looking after these dying people \u2013 the human toll is just phenomenal,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A study conducted by Mental Health Research Canada last month measured a wide range of factors relating to how employees are feeling a work and concluded that a staggering 66 per cent of nurses reported burnout.<\/a><\/p>\n

COVID-19 will be a problem we\u2019ll have to deal with annually, similar to the flu. – Glen Armstrong<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Alberta Health Services (AHS) says addressing staffing shortages and recruiting is a constant priority across the system all year round.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sheer exhaustion endured by these nurses are sometimes enough to make them quit,\u201d said Wilson. \u201cAnd without them, our health problem would become much worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

To remedy the problem, AHS said about 500 staff have indicated they will return to work under the new testing options, including the rapid antigen tests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since the Omicron variant was first introduced to Canada in late November last year, the total case count skyrocketed \u2013 but some experts believe the end is in sight. The government of Canada\u2019s health website [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":707,"featured_media":64581,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S1 Covid Endemic JJ","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,1560],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-64504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-pandemic"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/707"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64504"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64998,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64504\/revisions\/64998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}