Dr. Noorali Bharwani

This virus is smarter than us!

According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical adviser and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the highly contagious Omicron variant will find just about everybody.  Fauci also said, if you are vaccinated you will fare better. Your risk of hospitalization and death is reduced.

But those who are not vaccinated are going to get the brunt of the severe aspect of the disease fueled by the highly transmissible Omicron variant. However, small number of people amongst fully vaccinated may not do well. For example, the very old, very young, and immunocompromised will have weakened responses.

Now the focus should be on making sure hospitals and essential services continue to function effectively. COVID-19 is going to be part of our life. The best way of controlling the infection is for people to get vaccinated, wear a mask in public places and avoid large indoor gatherings.

Third dose of vaccine is 95 per cent effective against hospitalization and death. It also brings vaccine efficacy to 97 per cent for Delta and 61 per cent for Omicron. Unfortunately, only 56 per cent of Canadians 12 and older have at least three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Getting a third dose is important to boost our immunity. Experts believe each shot you receive reduces the severity of disease. Canada’s vaccine advisory body recommends ‘rapid deployment’ of fourth dose for people aged 80 and over.

Scientists are trying to figure out why some fully vaccinated individuals keep avoiding Covid-19 infection and why other fully vaccinated individuals keep getting recurrent infection.

Scientists are warning against lowering our guard. Our current defenses like vaccine may not hold up against the latest version of Omicron, BA.5, which is remarkably good at spreading and evading vaccine protection.

Experts agree avoiding infection is more challenging with BA.5. Omicron and its subvariants have made our social interaction riskier. BA.5, in particular, has increased the odds that people who’ve avoided COVID thus far will get sick.

BA.4 and BA.5 are subvariants of the Omicron variant that popped up late last year and then spread like wildfire all over the world. They were first discovered in South Africa and have recently grown to dominate the transmission of COVID.

BA.5 accounts for more than 50 per cent of new cases and BA.4 20 per cent. These two new subvariants seem better able to evade immunity afforded by vaccination and previous infection.

Majority of people in the U.S have had COVID-19 at least once – likely more than 70 per cent of the country. Other statistics from U.S. show many have been infected multiple times. Canada is no different. COVID-19 has infected roughly half of the Canadian population.

The emergence of an even more contagious version (Omega BA.4 and BA.5) of the virus means some people may be in for another round of infection. We don’t know the long-term effect of Omega variants on infected people.

Scientists are warning people that even if you are fully vaccinated including booster shots and have had COVID-19 after that, there is no guarantee you will not be infected again and again. But the risk of severe outcome may be quite low.

Who is getting reinfected and why? Scientists are looking for an answer to this. Risk of reinfection will always be there. We have to be careful. Hopefully, immunity in the population, whether from vaccines or prior infection, will build up and allow us to reduce transmission and hospitalization. We hope!

How many types of other variants are going to be there? Nobody knows.

Loss of smell and taste. Research shows five per cent of people who had COVID are dealing with long-lasting loss of smell or taste. Some 27 million people worldwide are estimated to have suffered a long-lasting loss of smell or taste. Losing smell has been linked to higher death rates in older adults and has been shown to have major impacts on people’s emotional and psychological well-being.

Get vaccinated. Get your booster shot. Remember, this virus is smarter than us!

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“Face masks work best to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2 when everyone wears one. But experts say it is still worth wearing a mask to protect yourself, even if no one else does,” says an article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ March 16, 2022) written by Lauren Vogel, news editor with CMAJ.

Our government has given in to public demand for freedom from wearing a mask to protect oneself and protect others. If you go to a party or shopping mall then almost nobody is wearing a mask. You go to a popular busy restaurant which is packed with people and nobody is wearing a mask.

There is a price to pay for this kind of freedom – more people are starting to get sick. People who are fully vaccinated with third and fourth booster shots are getting sick.

A friend of mine, who had his fourth COVID-19 vaccine shot three months ago recently came down with all the classic symptoms of COVID-19 infection. After two weeks of isolation, he is still recovering. What people forget is that vaccines do not provide 100 percent protection.

Third dose of vaccine is 95 percent effective against hospitalization and death. It also brings vaccine efficacy to 97 percent for Delta and 61 percent for Omicron. What about Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants? Do the current vaccines protect us from these variants?

The other thing people forget is the protection you get from COVID-19 vaccines can wane over time (4-6 months); so, booster doses are necessary. Boosters can help improve protection against severe outcomes by up to 90 percent. They may also reduce the risk of post COVID-19 condition.

What kind of mask is worth using to protect yourself and others?

Wearing a mask is very important especially if you are indoor in a crowded place with poor ventilation.

I will take the liberty of going back to Lauren Vogel’s article titled, “Is one-way masking enough?” She makes the following points:

1. Quality of mask: Better quality masks offered greater protection. Wearing an N95 or KN95 respirator lowered the odds of infection by 83 percent, whereas wearing a surgical mask or cloth mask lowered the odds by 66 percent and 56 percent, respectively.
2. Indoor public settings: Recent data from the United States shows that people who always wore a face mask in indoor public settings were less likely to test positive for SARS-CoV-2 than those who never wore a mask. Crowded indoor environments with poor ventilation is very risky.
3. Mask fitting: Properly fitted N95 respirators should filter at least 95 percent of virus particles. That’s notably better than the protection offered by universal masking with cloth and surgical masks, which would have fallen on the lower end of 75 – 91 percent.
4. Other types of masks: Surgical masks filtered 47 – 50 percent of particles, while a simple cotton mask filtered 17 – 20 percent. Cloth or surgical masks are very poor in protecting the wearer or other people.

We need to find more effective masks which are affordable and available to all levels of population. Our fight for survival is not over yet. Governments could also offer clearer guidance on separating good quality masks from the sea of unregulated and sometimes counterfeit options. Some European countries are making it mandatory for people to use high-quality masks and respirators that block 90 – 95 percent of particles.

Wearing a mask is like wearing a seat belt in a vehicle. It saves lives.

Start reading the preview of my book A Doctor's Journey for free on Amazon. Available on Kindle for $2.99!