“The current coronavirus is a very different, different disease from the original, so now we can start talking about covid-22.” These are the words of Antonio Zapatero, director general of the Madrid Health Service, and the explosion of very rare cases in recent days seems to agree with him.

But they just seem so: just when we thought the coronavirus was in the past, it’s back. Refurbished, yes; but the potential to turn everything upside down is the same. A potential that everything shows we will underestimate.

Is it a different virus?. Zapatero’s statement can only be understood in terms of health communication. On the other hand, it is not very well calibrated health communication. The virus remains the same, although new variants (especially BA.4 and BA.5) are already in the majority in Spain. There is no new virus. There is not even a virus that is significantly different from the previous one. Obviously, the virus mutates (and mutates a lot), but focusing on variants blurs the issue.

Because the fact that we see different things (that is, the evolution of the current wave is radically different from the previous ones) is a natural consequence of new variants, yes; after all, they are proving to be highly contagious. But most important of all is the evolution of our immune relationship with the virus. Therefore, beyond the dubious journalistic claim, there is no point in talking about another disease.

So why has it changed? As I said, and this is worth emphasizing, it’s not because it’s “a disease caused by a different virus”, but because the combination of new variants and the enormous immune wall “although the disease is very high right now”, what we found at the gates of the emergency room is something different: basically , “at the moment, [el COVID] It mainly affects chronic patients or patients with pre-existing pathology because it exacerbates the disease, just like the flu”,

This also means that the number of asymptomatic and short-term patients is very high. The disease is increasingly targeting the most vulnerable. And not because this was the case before, but as vaccination levels increase and natural immunity becomes established in the population, vulnerable groups are increasingly being identified. The reference to flu is not actually causal; The scenario followed by SARS-CoV-2 is very similar to the flu: It has become flu-like.

What are the results? What can we expect? That’s the real question. As cases grow and many institutions begin to need masks once again, or as some areas are re-enabling things like “autobahn”, the media is flooding with images of crowds (pride parties, Sanfermins, concert and festival season) and statistics. indicates an increase in cases. The general perception is that the virus is out of control; social anxiety is almost zero.

In fact, this minor anxiety can be seen in the lack of enthusiasm generated by the repeated announcements of the next dose. As with other major immunization programs, vaccination rates decline once the community urgency is over.

“An Ordinary Summer”. And the oversaturation problems we see now are due to the systemic problem (reduction of health resources in the summer) that has increased the system’s fatigue after these years of pandemic. We are not close to the worst of the health crisis, and while it is interesting to take action from an epidemiological point of view, it does not seem like society can afford this cost (even more so in a climate of war and current inflation).

Image: Yoaz Aziv

Super deals available today

Fire TV Stick with Alexa voice control

Xiaomi Mi WiFi Range Extender Pro Repeater

Xiaomi Portable Air Pump 1S