People unlikely to travel with masks forever: Anthony Fauci on the ‘new normal’

Warning that the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over and that Omicron would not be the last variant, global health experts said on Monday that much would depend on the transmissibility and severity of the next mutants of the deadly virus. .

Speaking during a session on COVID-19 on the first day of the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda online summit, US immunologist Dr Anthony S. Fauci also said that while it was still difficult to predicting what the new normal might be, he doesn’t think people will be wandering around with their masks on forever.

“Omicron is highly transmissible, but apparently not very pathogenic. While I hope that remains the case, it will depend on new variants emerging in the future,” he said.

He also said there was a lot of “misinformation” and that it was entirely destructive to a global public health enterprise.

He said endemicity means “a non-disturbing, non-eliminating presence”, but it cannot yet be said whether an endemic stage is underway.

“It’s very difficult to predict what the new normal would look like. I don’t think people would walk around with masks forever, but a new normal that I hope would be more solidarity with each other. I also hope the new normal would include a strong remembrance of what a pandemic can do to us,” he said.

Dr Fauci is the chief medical adviser to the President of the United States and one of the most prominent faces in the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

He is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and is a key adviser to the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services on global AIDS issues and initiatives. aimed at strengthening medical and public health preparedness. .

He was joined in the roundtable by Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovations (CEPI) CEO Richard Hatchett and Professor of Emerging Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Annelies Wilder-Smith.

Ms Wilder-Smith said Omicron would not be the last variant.

“We are not out of the pandemic yet,” she warned.

The global spread of the deadly virus, which was first reported in Wuhan China in late 2019, has seen over 32 crores of confirmed cases worldwide and over 55 lakh deaths so far.

The emergence of its fast-spreading Omicron variant, leading to the reintroduction of national lockdowns, travel bans and quarantines in various parts of the world, has heightened the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern” on January 30, 2020 and a pandemic on March 11, 2020.