Physician: Fight to eradicate COVID-19 is lost. 'Winning' defined by mitigation, treatment
Time to face a harsh reality about COVID-19: The virus is here to stay, and mankind must learn to live with it.
It's a message I've heard often in conversations with members of the medical community over the last month as the highly contagious and somewhat vaccine resistant omicron variant has swept the country.
One local health care pro put it bluntly: "At some point, I'm going to get it, you're going to get it, everybody is going to get it. It's now about management."
Dr. Murphy: COVID-19 pandemic lessons should spur Georgia General Assembly to action
In other words, COVID-19 is like NBA great LeBron James in his prime: You can't stop him, you can only hope to contain him. The fight is no longer to eradicate COVID-19 but to build on our ability to mitigate the effects. That includes evolving vaccinations to be resist to new strains and manufacturing more of the anti-viral treatment pills.
Dr. Mark Murphy talked about COVID-19 moving from the "pandemic" phase to an "endemic" phase in a podcast interview earlier this week. He's been on the front lines of the COVID-19 struggle since the beginning and is encouraged by what he's seen with the omicron variant: A strain of the virus that doesn't decimate the lungs and fill up hospital ICUs.
Furthermore, Paxlovid, the Pfizer anti-viral drug, has shown to be highly effective, at least to this point — more potent than popular influenza-treatment drug, Tamiflu.
Murphy foresees COVID-19 becoming a "seasonal respiratory virus" fought with an annual vaccine tailored to combat the most recent strains. Sound familiar?
"We're basically going to see periodic local flare ups over the next however many decades we're alive," Murphy said in the interview.
Yes, we're going to have to live with it. Click on the video above to hear more from Murphy on COVID-19.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: COVID-19 virus won't be eradicated like polio, it's here to stay
