The COVID-19 pandemic in 2023
Far from over
The Lancet
Submitted July 2023 by Dr Ian Miles
Read by 243 Journal Watch subscribers
Presents a reasonably current (Jan 2023) perspective from China, detailing the Dec 2022-Jan 2023 rise in COVID infections. Some of the reasons are outline (policy changes dropping most of the previous restrictions, inadequate vaccination rates in vulnerable groups including the elderly (prompting efforts to roll out more vaccines), and anticipated mass internal movement of people for Chinese New Year. The effects on a struggling health system are obvious, but numbers of deaths are hard to come by. The variants common in China now are the same as those circulating in Europe and beyond, in populations having higher levels of immunity. New variants with even higher potential for spread are circulating in the US, although the rates of severe disease so far do not seem to be increasing.
Commentary
Worth reading as brief summary of the current state of COVID infections elsewhere in the world, with the clear message that COVID is not over.
