While 'Certainly' Still in a Pandemic, COVID-19 Cases are Less Harsh

There is no particular season for COVID-19 cases to affect people these days as we continue to experience off-season spikes in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, according to Dr. Syra Madad of the NYC hospital system.

The Infectious Disease Epidemiologist at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs responded to Dr. Anthony Fauci's, director of NIAID, statement made in late November that the U.S. is “certainly” still in the middle of a Covid-19 pandemic.

Fauci said in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press between 300 and 400 people were still dying of the virus every day in the United States. He added that the uptake of the latest vaccine booster had been less than 15%.

Madad responded and said the omicron dynasty "which now has over 500 sub lineages" is getting better with evading our immunity, rendering the only monoclonal antibody treatment we have ineffective.

"At the same time, the average case of COVID-19 is associated with less severe disease given increased immunity in the population, vaccines and treatments like Paxlovid," she added.

According to the CDC, there are currently 458,986 new COVID cases as of this week. This time last year there were 843,031 in the week of Dec. 8, 2021.

Madad said vaccine efforts remain a priority as the Biden administration has requested congress for over $8 billion for covid-response. This includes funds for an “operation warp speed” like successor for newer generation covid vaccines and treatments.

As for what's to come in 2023, Madad shared it's hard to imagine what the new year will hold - especially with bouncing from monkeypox, to supporting RSV, covid and flu response, and now preparing for ebola given the outbreak in Uganda.

This article originally appeared in Managed Healthcare Executive.