As colder weather sets in, Covid rates are once more rising across the Northern Hemisphere, with several new variants on the scene.
Here’s what you need to know.
The Covid pandemic extracted a terrible toll, with nearly seven million deaths worldwide.
But thanks to vaccines, prior immunity and better treatments, the virus is now far more manageable. In the United States, excess deaths — the total number of people dying for any given cause — has been normal since spring.
“If you asked me to choose between getting flu and Covid, I would pick Covid because each individual case of flu is more dangerous,” said Ashish Jha, a former White House Covid coordinator and dean of public health at Brown University.
But while Covid is now less deadly to individuals, “it also seems to have higher rates of long term complications.”
Covid is also less seasonal than the flu, more contagious, and over the last three U.S. winters peaked from December to January, while flu peaks later.
Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, placed Covid “on par” with flu and RSV, but stressed it was more severe than the common cold.
Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax have developed new vaccines that more closely target current variants, all offshoots of Omicron which became dominant in late 2021.
There is broad consensus that annual boosters will benefit the most vulnerable. But whether they bring added value to everyone is debated.
Nearly everyone has already been infected, studies show. And prior infections combined with vaccines have trained immune systems to stop severe outcomes even when they can’t ward off infection.
One-size-fits-all recommendations no longer make sense, and could decrease trust in public health, said Monica Gandhi, author of “Endemic: A Post-Pandemic Playbook.”
For example, the mRNA vaccines of Pfizer and Moderna carry small risks of heart inflammation in younger men.
European nations advise annual shots only for higher risk groups, but some…
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