By Dr Kathryn Mainstone, NCWQ Health Adviser
COVID – Where To From Here?
Australia is coming out of the Omicron wave with both our hospitalisations and the number of daily deaths slowly falling. The governments around the country are rapidly reducing restrictions on mask-wearing and we are told to get back to living a close to normal life. What does that really mean for us?
Firstly, all of those who can be vaccinated should have a booster as soon as possible and the immunosuppressed should get a fourth dose. They should keep up to date with what the government is recommending as it may be that they come out with recommendations for those at risk to have another dose in 4-6 months. Keep your eye out for articles relating to the use of COVID antivirals, both intravenous and oral. Most of these need to be given in the first five days of the illness and can be difficult to obtain at times.
Secondly, those in the high-risk groups of having a bad outcome from COVID – the immunosuppressed, the elderly, those with other diseases which make them more at risk – need to take more care. Keep wearing your P2/N95 masks whenever you are in close contact with other people. HEPA filters markedly reduce the risk of transmission based on a Cambridge study and now a paper, not yet peer-reviewed, from Monash University has shown the same thing. Talk to your GP about why they have not introduced these into their practice, particularly if their room allows no ventilation. No one method works one hundred percent but combining the use of many things does significantly reduce risk.
Thirdly, unfortunately this Omicron variant is unlikely to mean the end of the pandemic. We will simply have to wait and see what the next variant may be like. Perhaps it will be more vaccine resistant and perhaps it will cause more serious disease. No-one can know until the variant arises, no matter how the government and the media may try to paint a rosy picture of the pandemic being over in an attempt to boost the economy.
We can still afford to carry a cautious optimism as we proceed. Hopefully, the vaccine scientists will come up with a pan-coronavirus vaccination within the next two years which will indeed mean that the pandemic will be truly over.
Dr Kathryn Mainstone
NCWQ Health Advisor, MBBS(Qld), DRCOG, FRACGP
Reference:
- Conway Morris, A, et al The removal of airborne SARS-CoV-2 and other microbial bioaerosols by air filtration on COVID-19 surge units. Clin Inf dis; 30 Oct 2021
background photo credit: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00396-2
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