Calls grow to treat COVID like an 'endemic' illness
mohd izzuan/iStock via Getty Images


How and when will the pandemic be over? Many are asking that question as the Omicron variant sweeps across the U.S., with infection numbers continuing to surge and hospitals strained due to a shortage of healthcare workers. New Jersey just reinstated a public health emergency due to the situation, while California has even ordered COVID-positive medical staff (that are asymptomatic) to stay on the job. Hospitalizations are also climbing higher than last winter's peak - before the widespread distribution of vaccines - due to Omicron's extraordinary spread in absolute numbers (meaning more people will experience severe disease).


Snapshot: Despite the toll on the healthcare system and other essential services, Omicron patients are 74% less likely to end up in ICUs and 91% less likely to die than Delta patients, according to the Kaiser Permanente in Southern California. Other studies also indicate that Omicron is less severe than other variants, and many are hoping that this will herald a new era of the virus becoming an endemic illness, or comparable to the flu. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez became the latest European leader this week to suggest that possibility, while the U.K. government already told the public it must "to learn to live with the virus."
Similar sentiment is starting to appear among top ranks in the U.S. "I think it's hard to process what's actually happening right now, which is: Most people are going to get COVID," Janet Woodcock, acting head of the FDA, told a Senate hearing on Tuesday. "What we need to do is make sure the hospitals can still function - transportation, other essential services are not disrupted while this happens. I think after that will be a good time to reassess how we're approaching this pandemic."

Other comments: "There's no way we're going to eradicate this [virus]," added White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci. "As Omicron goes up and down," the U.S. will enter a new phase "where there'll be enough protection in [the] community, enough drugs available so that when someone does get infected and is in a high-risk group, it will be very easy to treat that person. When we get there, there's that transition, and we may be on the threshold of that right now."

Coronavirus therapeutics and vaccine stocks: AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV), Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN), BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY), Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD), GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK), Merck (NYSE:MRK), Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA), Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX), Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), Regeneron (NASDAQ:REGN), Sorrento Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SRNE).