The word “endemic” has been one that’s been thrown around a lot in recent days, but what does it actually mean, and have we reached the stage where Covid-19 is endemic?
Last night, NPHET shared its recommendations for remaining restrictions to be lifted.
This would see the 8pm curfew in pubs and restaurants be scrapped, as well as the reopening of nightclubs. Vaccination passes may also become a thing of the past under these recommendations.
The Government are meeting today to discuss the time frame for these measures to be eased, offering a certain optimism that the end of the pandemic may be sooner than we think.
Despite this, the World Health Organisation has warned that it “is nowhere near over”.
Director General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that although Omicron is more contagious than previous strains but appears to cause less serious disease, vulnerable people are still falling ill and dying from the virus.
He also said that allowing Omicron to spread out of control by easing restrictions will significantly increase the chances of new variants emerging.
He said: "Omicron may be less severe, on average, but the narrative that it is a mild disease is misleading.”
With regards to the phrase “endemic”, immunology professor Luke O’Neill explained: “A pandemic is global - all over the world, hard to predict what might happen and usually a lot of cases that put healthcare systems under pressure.
“The term endemic means in one particular place, constantly present but more controllable - usually no huge spikes in cases, just burning away with increases in cases from time to time that are more manageable.”
According to the Washington Post, endemic does not suggest that a disease is mild. Rather, it just means that it’s relatively stable and predictable.
So, is Covid-19 endemic? Not just yet.
A spokesperson from the WHO today told the Irish Mirror : “It is too early to call COVID-19 an endemic disease. That is still a way off.
“Endemicity assumes a stable circulation of the virus at predictable levels of transmission. We still have a huge amount of uncertainty.
“The virus is evolving quickly and posing new challenges so we cannot call it endemic at this stage.
“Whether this virus becomes endemic will largely depend on us. Increasing vaccine uptake on an equitable basis, regionally and globally, will be key in moving towards endemicity.”
