COVID-19 moves into endemic phase, whats the difference? – KAMR – MyHighPlains.com

AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) Earlier this week, White House Health Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, said the country is coming out of the pandemic phase of COVID-19.

With the country exiting the pandemic phase and entering an endemic phase, many health experts are breathing a little easier now.

The first word I would think of is relieved, said Scott Milton, M.D, FACP, Regional Medical Director for the Department of State Health Services. This is a good thing.

You might be asking yourself, Whats the difference between a pandemic and an endemic?.

A pandemic is obviously what weve seen the last two years, which is uncontrolled spread of a virus across multiple communities, or countries, said Dr. Brian Weis, Chief Medical Officer at Northwest Texas Healthcare System.

When youre talking about endemic, youre talking about now a certain area where you find an outbreak, a geographic area limited to certain communities or to a certain time of year, so theres a seasonality to endemics, he said.

Dr. Weis added that a good example of seasonal endemics are influenza and RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) for kids.

The phasing down of covid-19 will have an effect in a few areas, from a medical standpoint, is there a seasonality to it? We really have to have a way of detecting when it hits us, so theres a surveillance mechanism, Dr. Weis said. Once you do detect it, you have to be able to care for people that get sick with it.

Dr. Weis told KAMR that plans for isolation, protection of staff, medications, would need to be implemented.

Then theres the different ways of re-assessing resources due to changes in demand.

We have vaccination teams that have assisted the state for this period of time, and because sheer number of vaccination has gone down remarkably, we wont need those contracted teams, said Dr. Milton.

Despite the devastation and tragedy surrounding the pandemic the last two years, both Dr. Weis and Dr. Milton say theyre proud of how the medical community and humanity has responded.

Thats the way science works, it starts usually with a small bit of knowledge, and then it grows over time and youre able to apply that, and thats what Im most proud of, Dr. Milton emphasized.

Weve also seen some spectacular science, weve seen some spectacular humanity and the goodness of humanity, and the spirit of community, Dr. Weis said.

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COVID-19 moves into endemic phase, whats the difference? - KAMR - MyHighPlains.com