Living with COVID-19
What does it mean to live with COVID-19?Two years into the pandemic, there’s a lot that experts have learned about SARS-CoV-2. However, humans keep enabling its circulation, giving the virus the chance to evolve. We are not in a position to predict the future of this pandemic, just yet.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the public was asked to listen to the advice of experts and public health officials. Now the public is being told to learn to live with COVID-19. At the same time, testing has become limited and little to no information on daily COVID-19 cases is now provided in some parts of Canada. So, any chance for the public to check the COVID “weather,” get a forecast and prepare for it is diminished. We are now living in a COVID fog.
In the summer of 2020, as Ontario was contemplating lifting lockdowns, public health experts looked for key indicators to sustain such measures. A three per cent positivity rate was considered to be a sufficiently safe community transmission rate to remove the public health protective measures. We are in a better position now with around 86 per cent vaccine coverage among those over five years old, and many people have grown accustomed to face masks, so it's likely that we can handle a higher positivity rate. The question is, how much higher?
The answer would be a useful indicator for the public to make COVID-19 protection choices. This is not about living with a zero-COVID policy. It is about empowering the public with up-to-date information and providing the right tools to weather a COVID-19 storm. Individuals cannot protect themselves on their own, nor should they have to. We do have vaccines, but their protection against infection wanes with time. In addition, it does not seem like we can boost our way out of this pandemic. We have the antiviral medications, such as Paxlovid, but they need to be administered in the early days of an infection. But without testing, how would one know when to take it?
In addition, distribution and administration of this medication has hit a wall in Canada. We have the masks that work very well, but the empty phrase “living with the virus” has muddled the significance of this simple, and yet protective, measure.
Instead of minimizing or dismissing this new wave of COVID-19, as well as future waves, we need for strategies to deal with new COVID-19 waves in an efficient way. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently held a meeting to brainstorm new ways to provide sustainable immune protection in the face of an ever-changing SARS-CoV-2 virus. Canada should follow suit.
Governments should follow the science and provide the means to live with virus: information about the emergence of new variants, number of daily cases, access to testing and solutions for longer-lasting immune protection with different vaccine technologies. Then we can all live a healthy life with COVID-19.
Geneture, provides COVID-19 Testing Solutions. Geneture Laboratory Products is committed to delivering critically needed diagnostic solutions to healthcare providers. We are actively collaborating with our suppliers to understand and manage the impact of the pandemic on product supply in order to keep our customers equipped with what they need. If you need more information, please feel free to contact.