In December 2019, World Health Organization (WHO) declared Covid-19 a global health emergency. Speedily spreading all over China, and the neighboring countries, affecting Italy, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom along with the South Asian countries, the pandemic was challenging to deal with due to the unavailability of vaccines.
With several vaccines coming out with different concentrations for different age groups, people were still very much under the fear of contracting Covid. While the hospitals and healthcare were exhausted from treating the covid patients in isolation, the better facilities for patients with cancer and sugar were also prone to covid, making it riskier for their health as it consumes the fighting and immune cells.
Face masks and vaccines were used to fight covid and prevent it from contacting it. But a new development suggests using the "vaccine plus" approach. This approach leads to understanding the benefit of improved ventilation and indoor air. Many covid experts have explained that government and leading businesses can help lessen the impact of covid on the public and relieve the socio-economic burden. For example, during the pandemic, many people lost their jobs due to the chaos created by covid, leading to a socio-economic disadvantage. The leading businesses and experts claim that covid has put the vulnerable more at risk than others.
It is a belief now that poor indoor air and ventilation was one of the biggest causes of the spread of covid among family members or those closely in contact with each other. Jose-Luis Jimenez, a distinguished professor of Chemistry at CU Boulder, emphasized the clean indoor air too.
Are vaccinated people still a risk for other people around?
For almost two years, the vaccines have played a vital role in controlling the spread of Covid-19. Apart from vaccines, the government ordered a ban on the people who decided to remain unvaccinated. Some people who were not vaccinated are dining in places with the vaccinated ones after the covid restrictions got easy for both vaccinated and non-vaccinated.
The unvaccinated people were a challenge for the healthcare system as it would slow down the process for other vaccinated patients fighting other sicknesses. The goal of achieving better healthcare without overwhelming them was challenging as people didn't want to go against their belief system of getting vaccinated.
Dr. Jefferey Shaman, who specializes in infectious diseases, stated that unvaccinated people still threaten themselves and those around them. According to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, in August 2021, unvaccinated people were at six times more risk of dying from covid than those vaccinated. As a result, the chances of dying were eight times higher than those vaccinated and boosted.
According to the Barcelona Institute for Global Health consensus, SARS-CoV-2 spreads at an alarming rate, exhausting healthcare and bringing people back to the threatening position.
In October 2022, recent statistics tell that there were more than 630 million covid cases with 6.5 million deaths. Even though the estimated death toll reached 20 million, many patients with chronic diseases had to face delays in their treatment.
While the experts have agreed that the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 spreads faster from the air, it is equally necessary to acknowledge the role of face masks for respiratory purposes. But the main emphasis was on better air quality, filtration, and ventilation to somewhat stop the spread of covid.
The outbreak of the covid pandemic not only led to the outbreak of infectious diseases such as Ebola, HIV, and monkeypox but also raised public health concerns and crises. Drug overdose, famine, and antimicrobial resistance all come under the public health crisis. Associate Professor of the University of Colorado, Joshua Barocas, stated that if people remain unprepared and don't address the collateral damage caused by Covid-19 as systematic damage, then people are at a greater risk for health problems in general.
In a way, vaccinated people are not harmful to others around as much as the unvaccinated are. Therefore, unvaccinated are more prone and vulnerable to contracting covid. While the ratio of vaccinated and boosted people might be low, it doesn't mean they are not susceptible to covid. Therefore, the experts concluded during vaccination and getting booster shots that there is still a need for proper social distancing and the need to wear masks. Even after the vaccination, there is still a chance of covid and the increased health risks that come with it.
Therefore, the longer the pandemic stays, the more complicated health issues will become. Recently, China has gone into a lockdown again. Mexico celebrated the Day of The Dead festival with slightly loose covid restrictions, but that doesn't mean covid has subsided.
The New Variants and Changing Trends in Covid: In New Delhi, India, 1362 people tested positive in a day for covid in October 2022. While the recovery rate reached 98%, there is still a 0.4%, comprised of active covid cases, said the Union Health Minister of India.
Adrian Esterman explained how BQ1 and BQ1.1 variants of Omicron and no longer severe and life-threatening once you are boosted and vaccinated. Once the vaccinations fight the variant, it stops the wave for people. He also stated that there is still a need for getting the Moderna booster which is still an excellent response for Omicron and its variants.
Since covid has changed the variant, Omicron came into existence, and while the variant could create another chaos after covid, it also increased the chances of reinfection. The new wave of Omicron was better and stronger at evading people's immunity systems, whether vaccinated or not.
The subvariant of Omicron XBB is active in Singapore and Australia, but the experts have also stated that the risk of several illnesses is low due to vaccinations. While the variants and subvariants are emerging from one another, it seems that they don't have any different patterns but similar and older ones, said Professor Catherine Bennet, chairwoman of Epidemiology at Deakin University.
While the debate continues with the waves and variants of covid and Omicron, the experts and authors of the University of Colorado have explained that it is equally necessary to have a better air quality and filtration process in the homes. Just how important it is to wear face masks to stop the spread of covid; the air we breathe must be clean and not infectious to stop the wave.
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