After billions of global COVID-19 infections, millions of deaths, and countless lives upended by long-lasting health impacts, we’ve finally hit a point in this pandemic where SARS-CoV-2 isn’t the fearsome pathogen it used to be.
The scientists analyzed more than 700,000 individual samples, said one of the study’s authors, Dr. David Buckeridge, the scientific lead for data analytics at the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force, and a professor in the School of Population and Global Health at McGill University in Montreal.
That’s good news at a population level, but Skowronski warned that seniors remain at the highest risk of severe outcomes even if they’ve been vaccinated — since many lack the potent protection provided by hybrid immunity, making first-time infections a gamble.
That’s because as population immunity built up, SARS-CoV-2 either had to “adapt or perish,” said Dr. Peter Jüni, a professor of medicine and clinical trials at the University of Oxford who previously led the now-defunct Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table.
Longer-term, the scientists who spoke to CBC News said they’re increasingly hopeful that SARS-CoV-2 will stay on its current evolutionary path, reducing the chance of a new variant that could dramatically spike infections or render vaccines ineffective.
But since front-line immunity can wane over time, while someone’s personal risk level may shift due to aging, pregnancy, or the development of other health issues, booster shots will still play a role in keeping COVID at bay, Bhattacharya said.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
After billions of global COVID-19 infections, millions of deaths, and countless lives upended by long-lasting health impacts, we’ve finally hit a point in this pandemic where SARS-CoV-2 isn’t the fearsome pathogen it used to be.
The scientists analyzed more than 700,000 individual samples, said one of the study’s authors, Dr. David Buckeridge, the scientific lead for data analytics at the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force, and a professor in the School of Population and Global Health at McGill University in Montreal.
That’s good news at a population level, but Skowronski warned that seniors remain at the highest risk of severe outcomes even if they’ve been vaccinated — since many lack the potent protection provided by hybrid immunity, making first-time infections a gamble.
That’s because as population immunity built up, SARS-CoV-2 either had to “adapt or perish,” said Dr. Peter Jüni, a professor of medicine and clinical trials at the University of Oxford who previously led the now-defunct Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table.
Longer-term, the scientists who spoke to CBC News said they’re increasingly hopeful that SARS-CoV-2 will stay on its current evolutionary path, reducing the chance of a new variant that could dramatically spike infections or render vaccines ineffective.
But since front-line immunity can wane over time, while someone’s personal risk level may shift due to aging, pregnancy, or the development of other health issues, booster shots will still play a role in keeping COVID at bay, Bhattacharya said.
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