The Covid-19 health emergency is over |
"We are in uncharted territory."
That was the ominous warning from the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on March 3, 2020, the day that we first started sending this newsletter to your inboxes.
It had been just over two months since the first cluster of Covid-19 cases was reported in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. The virus had spread to every continent except Antarctica. Medical workers from Iran to Italy were battling virulent outbreaks, while other countries were working furiously to avoid a similar fate by readying public health authorities and enacting travel restrictions.
Several nations were putting measures in place to limit the virus' spread, closing schools, encouraging remote work and canceling or scaling back public events — measures that most people suspected would not last long.
Around 3,000 deaths had been recorded as of that first newsletter. More than 6.9 million people are now known to have died of Covid-19, though that number is thought to be much higher.
It is surreal to read back through those early, daily updates, knowing what we do now about how the pandemic unfolded. The bulletins from that period still feel stranger than fiction: GPS-tracking apps that sound the alarm when patients violate quarantine in South Korea; European lawmakers trading handshakes for bumping elbows; A cruise ship with suspected cases being held off the coast of San Francisco.
About three years on from the start of the pandemic, which ultimately prompted the United States and other nations around the globe to require people to be vaccinated against the virus, most countries have returned to life as we knew it before.
Last week, the WHO announced that the coronavirus was no longer a global health emergency — a major moment in the arc of what was the worst public health threat in a century. And today, the US will lift its own Covid-19 public health emergency, ending with it requirements that most international travelers, federal employees and contractors, health-care workers and Head Start educators be vaccinated — mandates that helped curtail the virus while simultaneously sparking fierce political and legal battles in the country.
"Our Administration's vaccination requirements helped ensure the safety of workers in critical workforces, including those in the healthcare and education sectors, protecting themselves and the populations they serve," the White House said in a statement earlier this month. "While vaccination remains one of the most important tools in advancing the health and safety of employees and promoting the efficiency of workplaces, we are now in a different phase of our response when these measures are no longer necessary."
As we enter this new phase, Covid-19 continues to spread and evolve, though health experts are hopeful that we have the tools we need to ensure that future waves in infections don't result in waves of deaths. But while the global health emergency may be over, another highly mutated variant, akin to Omicron, could be possible within the next two years, experts say. And infectious disease specialists continue to raise the alarm about other, new viruses emerging with devastating consequences.
"One of the greatest tragedies of Covid-19 is that it didn't have to be this way. We have the tools and technologies to prepare for pandemics better, detect them earlier, respond to them faster, and communicate their impact. But globally, a lack of coordination, a lack of equity, and lack of solidarity meant that those tools were not used as effectively as they could have been," Tedros said last week, a sober reminder of the differing responses to the pandemic around the world.
"We must promise ourselves and our children and grandchildren that we will never make those mistakes again."
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WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declares an end to the Covid-19 global health emergency. (Denis Balibouse/Reuters/File) |
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A letter from Dr. Sanjay Gupta: It's time for the patient to leave the hospital
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Throughout the pandemic, I have written several essays about the US as if it were my own patient. I think of the end of the public health emergency as my patient finally being discharged from the hospital after a lengthy illness. The hospitalization has been full of setbacks and improvements, stints in the ICU and then back to the general care floor, vital signs bordering on the catastrophic but also triumphs of modern medicine and human ingenuity.
And although it is a very good sign that the patient is getting discharged, it doesn't mean America (or the world) is entirely out of the woods. There will still be testing, close monitoring and follow-up appointments – all, hopefully, to prevent readmission.
On the discharge papers, I write these parting instructions: Be prudent. Stay at home if you are sick. Talk to your doctor about keeping a course of oral antivirals (like Paxlovid) in your medicine cabinet if you are at higher risk of hospitalization or death. Remember what Dr. Anthony Fauci recently said: "If you are vaccinated and boosted and have available therapy, you are not going to die [of Covid], no matter how old you are." That should be reassuring to people like my parents, who are now in their early 80s. And, yes, please use the formal end of the pandemic as a new beginning for yourself personally. Invest in yourself to get into the best possible health to feel better, happier and stronger now, as well as to weather any medical storm in the future.
But most of all, go enjoy all the things that a major emergency or the threat of severe illness wouldn't let you do. Call if you have any problems.
I wish my patient well. I wish us all well.
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With the WHO and US ending their Covid-19 emergencies, we have decided to wrap this newsletter. But that doesn't mean we'll stop covering the pandemic. You can read all of our most recent updates on Covid-19, as well as other news about diseases, medicines and living well on CNN Health. Interested in getting the latest expert advice, medical breakthroughs and inspiring techniques to live a healthier, happier and longer life? Sign up for The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta. |
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Q How is America's Covid-19 response and tracking changing? A When the US public health emergency ends today, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention will have to change some of the ways it tracks Covid-19, but the agency says it won't lose its sightlines on the infection as it continues to be part of American life.
The CDC will stop posting a national count of cases. The agency's color-coded maps of county-level transmission and disease burden will be retired, it will no longer track variants down to the state level, and it will update its genomic surveillance estimates every two weeks instead of weekly.
"Though our data going forward will be different, they will continue to provide timely insights for CDC, for local health officials, as well as for the public to understand Covid-19 dynamics," CDC Principal Deputy Director Dr. Nirav Shah said. "In short, we will still be able to tell that it's snowing, even though we're no longer counting every snowflake."
The end of the Covid-19 emergency in the US will come with a host of changes to how the government tracks the pandemic, with data collection becoming less frequent in most cases and less granular. Labs will no longer have to submit testing data to the government. Reporting of cases by states will also become discretionary.
Dr. Eric Topol, founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, said he thinks the dismantling of data systems is a mistake, given the consensus that another highly disruptive variant could be on the way within a few years. "I wish there wouldn't be as much letdown, because this is on the horizon, is a real risk," he said. |
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