COVID-19 specialist says people using term ‘endemic’ too freely

A Halifax infectious disease specialist believes people are starting to throw around the word “endemic” a bit too freely regarding COVID-19.

“Endemic just means that it's a present virus,” Dalhousie University's Dr. Lisa Barrett said. “In this case, it's a virus or disease that's around in our communities at a certain level, and the exact per centage of people that have been exposed to it, or the number of cases per year that makes something endemic, changes depending on the disease you're talking about.

“It's quite likely that this is a virus that's becoming a part of our landscape, and there are different ways to be endemic.”

She told CityNews 95.7 the reason Nova Scotia is still in a pandemic state is that there's a lot of very rapid and not-entirely-predictable changes regarding COVID-19.

Moreover, there isn't a lot of experience with the virus, including years of natural exposure immunity.

“Therefore, there are still things that are shifting rapidly,” she said. “Endemic does mean that the virus can go up and down with seasons and the like, but we can predict what's going to happen.”

On top of that, she said the term “endemic” doesn't mean the virus isn't going to have a significant impact.

For instance, malaria is considered an endemic in some African countries and other parts of the world — and hundreds of thousands of people die each year.

“We just have to be careful with how we interpret the word 'endemic,'” she said. “Is it likely this virus is going to stick around and be endemic? At a certain per centage of our population over time, absolutely. Does that mean it's harmless? No.”

In terms of Omicron's current situation, Dr. Barrett said it seems as though Canada and other countries are reporting fewer COVID-19 cases. While some countries have seen an uptick in cases after changing restrictions, she said it's still good to note when cases see a general decline.

“It's what viruses do,” she said. “Hospitalizations, though, have not yet quite peaked. The other piece I think we should be aware of is we also have made the case numbers go down with some of our restrictions.

“If we start to take those away or the precautions away, we would expect that we may see additional cases going on.”

Still, Dr. Barrett remains adamant that vaccines were never supposed to be the miracle cure that'd completely end the COVID-19 pandemic.

“What is true is that vaccines don't prevent all infection and transmission, but they never were meant to do that,” she said. “Is the prevention of transmission and infection slightly less efficient with Omicron and our current vaccines? Yes, that's true.”

She said that's why people must be meticulous about where they're going and vulnerable people must be aware of the potential dangers to their health.

“Vaccines are amazing at preventing deaths and hospitalizations, still really good with Omicron, but definitely does not completely prevent transmission and infection,” she said. “If we expected that from a vaccine, we were expecting the wrong thing.”