Tonya L. Breaux-Shropshire, PhD, MPH, RN
Pick your COVID-19 risk. Medical expert academics have predicted that COVID-19 will be endemic at least for several seasons. That essentially means that eventually, just about everyone will get infected with the COVID-19 virus.
They think this is happening due to the highly infectious Delta variant and our inability to reach herd immunity.
According to Dr. Andrew Pollard, herd immunity is “impossible” because people who are vaccinated could still spread the virus.
I know, a COVID-19 endemic sounds like bad news, and this news is hard to believe. Even worst is that Dr. Pollard said there are likely new variants of concern on the rise.
The new variants will likely be just as transmissible or more transmissible than COVID-19 Delta. However, the good news is that you can choose how you want to deal with the COVID-19 endemic.
A new study of a million United Kingdom vaccinated people showed that COVID-19 vaccine is somewhat protective against long haul COVID-19. The fully vaccinated had half the risk of getting long COVID.
COVID-19 High-Risk Choice
Germany and the United Kingdom are moving away from testing unless the person is ill. Testing is deemed unnecessary since cases will not provide much new information, according to Dr. Pollard.
One COVID-19 risk choice is, don’t get vaccinated, don’t follow public health measures so you can get infected.
Get infected and hope that you won’t get sick or have a severe case.
Then, hope you won’t be hospitalized, and once hospitalize hope you won’t get placed on the ventilator. If placed on a ventilator, hope that you would survive and get wean off without long-term injury or illnesses.
COVID-19 Low-Risk Choice
Another choice would be the opposite and you get fully vaccinated. Continue to follow public health measures and get your booster shot at 8 months or when advised by your doctor. Wait 21 days after your booster shot and take your mask off if advised by the CDC.
When you get infected and fully vaccinated with a booster, you will have approximately a 10-30% chance of getting infected. Once infected your chance of getting sick or having a severe case is significantly reduced.
Then, you won’t likely be hospitalized if fully vaccinated with a booster. If you are hospitalized you won’t likely get placed on the ventilator.
If placed on a ventilator when you are fully vaccinated with a booster, you will likely survive and get wean off without long-term injury or illnesses.
Regardless of your choice, take the opportunity to be motivated to exercise, eat healthily and supplement with vitamins if needed.
What Are COVID-19 Signs or Symptoms If Vaccinated
If you are vaccinated, COVID-19 signs and symptoms might be different if you become infected.
Runny nose, headache, sneezing, sore throat, and loss of smell are the most common symptoms among the vaccinated.
If you have symptoms of COVID, get tested early. Ask your doctor about monoclonal antibodies when your test is positive. Of note, monoclonal antibodies usually cannot be given within 90 days of your COVID-19 vaccination.
The monoclonal antibodies work best within the first 5 days and up to the first 9 days after symptoms.
As far as the research has shown, monoclonal antibodies work against all COVID-19 variants. The sooner you get tested and treated the better.
Where Did the COVID-19 Pandemic Originate?
So far, the United States (US) intelligence was not able to determine the origin of COVID-19. Their guest is that COVID-19 either came from “natural exposure to an infected animal” or “a lab association at the incident.”
Some US intelligence thinks that there is low confidence for natural exposure. However, they believe there’s “moderate confidence for the lab association” involving “Wuhan Institute of Virology”.
Intelligence has stated that coronavirus has been studied at this lab for about a decade.
The World Health Organization panel has stated that afterwhile, it may be “biologically impossible” to find out the origin of the virus.
Conclusion
The choice is yours. Pick your risk. The COVID-19 endemic is coming.
You can learn more about COVID-19 here.
In this episode, I featured Dr. Andrew Pollard who has predicted that COVID-19 will be endemic for several seasons. In addition, a WHO medical expert talks about the importance of data, and a report about the success India had with ivermectin. Thanks for listening!
