As with any other ineradicable disease, prevention and treatment can be integrated into society
Delaying and preventing infection as much as possible through this pandemic was a worthwhile strategy. In early 2020, there were few treatments, limited testing and no vaccines. The costs of those lockdowns were big, but the effort to buy time paid off. In that time, science has transformed Covid from a deadly virus to a much less serious, nasty disease – one that is manageable at home, for the vast majority of those vaccinated. It has, largely, defanged it.
But even as we have had success treating and preventing serious infections, Sars-CoV-2 has become increasingly transmissible. ONS survey data indicates that one in 15 are positive in England, with similar numbers for the other three nations. While the good news is that the Omicron variant is resulting in less severe disease and a smaller fraction of hospitalisations, so many people are infected and isolating that critical services are struggling with staffing. This is what is driving governments to rethink isolation policies, and ask whether they are becoming more disruptive than the virus itself.
Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh
