What does it mean that the United States has emerged from the pandemic phase of the new coronavirus?

Dr. Huerta explains what phase of the pandemic is being experienced in the US 1:42

(CNN Spanish) - 

Dr. Anthony Fauci told PBS recently that the United States was out of the pandemic phase.

Some statements that fueled different types of comments, including the question of whether this means that the coronavirus pandemic is over.

In this episode, Dr. Elmer Huerta explains why we are still in a pandemic.

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, or read the transcript below.

Hi, I'm Dr. Elmer Huerta and this is your dose of information about the new coronavirus.

Information that we hope will be useful to take care of his health and that of his family.

In a recent interview with the United States Public Broadcasting System, Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, stated that the country has come out of the covid-19 pandemic phase. .

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Subsequently, and due to the confusion caused by his statements, Dr. Fauci clarified in interviews with other media outlets that, although it is true that the United States has already left the pandemic phase of the infection, the pandemic is not over yet. .

Today we will see what is the difference between both situations.

What are the phases of a pandemic?

First of all, let us remember that the World Health Organization defines that pandemics have six phases, the last being the so-called “pandemic phase”, the one in which the pandemic truly occurs, that is, the massive contagion of the virus through of the planet.

The five previous phases describe the process of formation of the pandemic.

According to the WHO, the end of the sixth phase, or pandemic phase, is slow, progressive, and is characterized by a sustained decrease in the number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, which gradually reach a very low number.

It is important to understand that the number of cases of infection never reaches zero, since, at this stage, the new coronavirus does not disappear, but the acute phase of massive contagion has been controlled.

The coronavirus pandemic in the US

That is the point that, according to Dr. Fauci, has been reached by the United States.

A point at which, despite the fact that there are still a high number of cases, this increase is not reflected in the number of hospitalizations and deaths, which continue to decrease day by day.

That would explain the claim that, in the United States, the great pandemic of 2019 has reached the end of its acute or pandemic phase.

But that does not mean that the pandemic as such is over.

In addition to that important reason, that is, still having relatively many cases, but a progressive decrease in hospitalizations and deaths, there is another powerful reason to justify the end of the pandemic phase.

The vast majority of the population in the United States has developed immunity against covid-19, either through vaccines or natural disease.

In this sense, recent data from the CDC reveal that almost 60% of the population has already had the infection, including 75% of children and adolescents.

On the other hand, according to the CDC, almost 220 million people, or 66% of the population, have been fully vaccinated, a number that includes 100 million who received their first booster dose.

If you combine both types of immunity, natural and developed by vaccines, you have the extraordinary situation that, according to the CDC, 95% of Americans over the age of 16 have managed to develop antibodies, either by natural infection, or by dosage.

So, have we reached the end of the pandemic?

In short, the fact that the United States, at least in the words of President Joe Biden's top medical adviser, has reached the end of the pandemic phase does not mean that the pandemic as a global event has disappeared.

It is also likely that this end of the pandemic phase is occurring in many other regions of the world, but we must be aware that the virus is still circulating and causing illness and death in the world, including places like Latin America.

The situation in China, as we have heard in previous episodes, is still uncertain, therefore, it is not possible to say, for the moment, that the great pandemic of 2019 is over.

Let us remember that, despite being vaccinated, the most vulnerable populations are still at risk of complications, so it is important that they continue to protect themselves, avoiding going to closed and poorly ventilated places and using N95 masks in case they have to attend. .

Do you have questions about the coronavirus?

Send me your questions on Twitter, we'll try to answer them in our next episodes.

You can find me at @DrHuerta.

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Thanks for your attention.

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