Four possible Coronavirus future scenarios!

WHO (World Health Organisation) has said that Omicron won't be the last variant. A WHO official has said that the new variants can be a matter of concern and will be more transmissible than Omicron. However, “The big question is whether future variants will be more severe or less." The official added that the new variant can reduce the efficiency of the existing vaccines, the official added.

It’s been almost three years of learning to live under a global pandemic. Over time, every arrival of new variants has raised challenges for all people across all sectors and nations. Until now, we have come across at least five different types of Covid variants such as Alpha, Beta, Gama, Delta and the latest one Omicron with various sub-variants. Omicron was found in South Africa in 2021 whereas other ones were detected in 2020 from different parts of the world.

There is no confirmation on whether the upcoming variant would be milder than the previous variant, although studies are underway to predict the exact severity.

A study published in Nature,  a scientific journal from London, explains four different scenarios regarding Coronavirus in future.

Scenario 1: The most hopeful but probably least likely future for SARS-CoV-2 would be to follow the pattern of measles. Vaccination may protect your health lifetime, and the virus circulates largely on the basis of new births.

Scenario 2: This scenario has more chances to turn into reality.  SARS-CoV-2 can follow the path of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Most people have chances in their first two years of life to get the virus. RSV is a leading cause of hospitalisation of infants, but most childhood cases are mild.

Scenario 3: The third situation would be that coronavirus appears like influenza A virus. This can lead to global seasonal influenza epidemics each year. Due to instant changes, new variants are able to escape the immunity elicited by past strains. This can result in seasonal epidemics, the infection can spread through adults who can still develop severe symptoms. Flu jabs reduce disease severity.

Scenario 4: If SARS-CoV-2 evolves to evade immunity more sluggishly, it might come to resemble influenza B. That virus’s slower rate of change, compared with influenza A. This means the infection’s transmissible rate is higher in children who have less immunity than adults.