Views: 0 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2022-04-22 Origin: Site
On April 13, the World Health Organization issued a statement after judging the latest epidemic situation, announcing that the new crown pandemic continues to constitute a "public health emergency of international concern". A day later, WHO data showed that the new crown epidemic broke through another important node: the cumulative number of confirmed cases worldwide exceeded 500 million, and the number of deaths exceeded 6.19 million.
Compared with the time when the Ormicron strain was first discovered in November last year, the cumulative number of
confirmed cases in the world has increased by more than 250 million, and the number of deaths has increased by more than 1 million, which is equivalent to erasing a medium-sized virus from the earth in half a year. population of the city. "The novel coronavirus continues to cause high levels of morbidity and mortality, especially among vulnerable populations," WHO wrote in the statement.
In particular, the WHO reminds that the trends reflected in its weekly epidemic reports must be interpreted with caution, as some countries are gradually changing their testing strategies, and the statistics are lower than the actual situation. Its assessment is that, despite the reduced pathogenicity of the Omicron strain, a large increase in confirmed cases has resulted in a large number of hospitalizations, further stressing the healthcare system. "In some countries, the number of deaths is similar to or higher than the previous peak."
Under the new situation of the global epidemic, "lying flat" is actually a helpless choice for some countries and regions. After many attempts, they could not find an ideal coping strategy, so in addition to boosting vaccination, they no longer emphasized or simply did not take other prevention and control measures. However, after "laying down", it is common to see a surge in the number of cases and a high number of deaths. After a period of time, the epidemic curve turns downward.
The United States is a representative example. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s epidemic curve chart shows that the highest number of new deaths in a single day in the United States (4,184 cases reported on February 1 this year) occurred at the peak of the epidemic caused by the Omicron strain, when the United States continued to About half a month ago, the seven-day average of more than 2,500 deaths was reported, significantly higher than the peak during the Delta virus strain last September. In recent days, the average daily death toll in the United States is still more than 400. Due to the tightening of the epidemic, Philadelphia announced the resumption of the indoor mask order on April 11, becoming the first major US city to resume the indoor mask order recently.
The lessons of Japan should also be learned. Since mid-January this year, there have been more than 10,000 new deaths from the new crown in Japan, while the total death toll from the new crown in Japan is less than 30,000. Sweden is an early adopter of the "lying flat" strategy. An article recently published in Humanities and Social Sciences Correspondence, a subsidiary of the British "Nature" magazine, criticized it, arguing that Sweden adopted a "natural" herd immunity strategy to deal with the epidemic. The reality is that in 2020 Sweden's new crown mortality rate is 10 times that of neighboring Norway, "if Sweden is to do better in future pandemics, the scientific method must be re-established." Relevant statistics show that Sweden, with a population of about 10 million, has more than 18,000 new crown deaths; Norway, with a population of about 5 million, has no more than 3,000 new crown deaths.
In the resumption of the new crown epidemic, a major global public health crisis that has not been seen in a century, there have been several optimism that the epidemic is coming to an end, especially when vaccines are widely used. However, mutant strains appear one after another, and there is huge uncertainty in virus mutation. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: "We cannot predict how the virus will evolve.
Looking around the world, there are only a handful of countries that still meet the conditions of "discovering one and putting it out". It is still the best option for these countries to eliminate new epidemics in the bud. “Think of what the world would be like in early 2020 if every country in its power had adopted a 'zero out' policy. It is indisputable that the global death toll would be much lower, fewer people would be chronically infected, the economy would be Losses will also be reduced... Omicron may not have a chance to evolve at all," the British weekly "New Scientist" said with emotion in a recent article, "When the next pandemic occurs, governments should keep in mind the 'zero' strategy.
