People’s life feel suspended.
It’s as if people are standing still, but they’re almost afraid to ask, scared to hope.
Could this Omicron wave be the last? Is it the beginning of the end?
Emily and Hashem say: “It’s like you’re being a bit held back. I want to keep on moving myself for in life, but it’s really hard to do when like you’re fighting against this, like wall, like the pandemic got to keep on pushing. And I’m hoping it ends at some point.”
Emily is studying medicine, Hashem is studying pharmacology. Their futures are bright, if they can get to them, the pandemics finish line keeps moving with every mutation.
“It’s hard when you want to feel in control of your life, and there’s something external that is pushing you and other people away from each other. It’s definitely difficult.” said by Emily.
Two years in, it does feel like we’re stuck in a Covid loop. There’s a new sense of defeat, as Omicron continues its staggering spread, but while hospitals strain under a massive wave of infections,. Omicron is not causing as much severe disease, offering a glimmer of hope that this latest mild or variant could signal the pandemic is on its way out.
“We know that all pandemics eventually become endemic,” said by Dr. Prabhat, “Now, is that going to happen with Coronavirus and Omicron? Well, the hope is, yeah. But we don’t know yet.”
Dr. Prabhat is an epidemiologist at the University of Toronto. He said: “Endemic would mean Covid turns into a seasonal virus like the flu. Omicron’s high infection rate, combined with vaccines could get us there faster, but any hopeful speculation comes with heavy caveats, because it’s not clear how long immunity would last and no guarantee it would shield us from future variance.”
“I’m hopeful that Omicron very much represents the last big wave of infections. And after we’ll have some protection, but we have to get more vaccines procured and available to low income countries so that the vaccination rates go up, the variant factories go down.”
Waiting for that to happen for many, it can feel like walking on shifting ground. Omicron was a curve ball, says Karen Pulley, and it’s left her family exhausted.
“I think I thought the end was in sight, right? I’m like we’re almost there. We’re so close. I think that the Omicron thing just kind of like, changed what the new normal was, even though the new normal was normal.”
Karen Pulley’s children say that they feel paralyzed in the present.
“I am resigned for it. I am missing out on sports, hanging out with my friends, having a normal high school experience. Everything now like it makes you feel stuck.”
It’s left Dr. Karen Mossman feeling more cautious than optimistic. She said: “Yeah, just not sure about the variant and where we’re going. I do believe it is the beginning of the end. What we don’t know is exactly where that end is.”
Dr. Karen Mossman is a virologist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Her team was among the first to isolate the virus behind Covid-19.
“Global immunity may be a way off, but every step towards it.” She said, “in areas where we do have very good access to vaccines, we are seeing populations that are building up that immunity. Now, the trick is to get that level of natural impact, seed, native immunity spread throughout the globe.”
Mossman said vaccines will also keep adapting to new variance. “It’s likely that the new technologies that we have to rapidly make vaccines that we can alter the Coronavirus vaccine the way that every year we alter the influenza virus vaccine, might not be a perfect fit for the current circulating period. But it’s gonna provide a sufficient level of protection, even what we’re seeing now. Many more cases, but less severity of disease hospitalizations I see.”
Learning to live with Covid continues to be a test of stamina and for Emily and Hashem, also a lesson in letting go.
“If you can’t really do anything about it, you can make the best of a bad situation. It’s important, just like your life that way, no matter how many ups and downs there are.”
“It’s all about endurance, and hopefully we will get to an end point soon.”
Resource: CBC News