Covid: Rising again in Britain and Europe

Just as the U.S. finally appears to have “turned the corner” on Covid-19 infections, said Cady Stanton in USA Today, Europe is recording yet another surge in cases. After ending all Covid restrictions, the U.K., the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and several other countries have all seen rising case numbers in recent weeks, with some also experiencing an uptick in hospitalizations. The U.K. has seen new cases surge by more than 75 percent. One big factor may be the spread of BA.2, a subvariant of Omicron thought to be “30 percent more transmissible than the original.” Another is that many of these countries—like the U.S.—have lifted mask mandates and other Covid restrictions in a bid to treat the virus “as a part of daily life.” Given that the U.S. generally lags about a month behind Europe on Covid trends, are we headed for another surge here too?

Denmark is showing us what “endemic” Covid may look like, said Andrew Romano in Yahoo News. When the country declared itself fully open in early February, new cases soared, and hospitalizations and deaths rose by about 33 percent. But with 82 percent of Danes vaccinated, Denmark essentially let the virus rip, and cases are now declining. The problem for the U.S. is that our vaccine rates are much lower: Even now, two years into the pandemic, about a third of seniors still haven’t had their boosters. Another issue is waning immunity, said The Washington Post in an editorial. Research has shown that the efficacy of the booster decreases significantly after four or five months, not the full year scientists had hoped for. That means we’ll probably need a second booster before long—and with “vaccine fatigue” already high, that could be a tough sell.

Then there’s the danger that a new, more lethal variant will emerge, said Tanya Lewis in Scientific American. “There is no law of nature that says a virus must always evolve to become less virulent.” The question is, If a dangerous new variant begins spreading, will Americans be willing to resume masking and distancing? After the main three waves of the 1918 flu pandemic, a new variant emerged in 1920 that “effectively caused a fourth wave.” This strain was actually more deadly than its precursors—but cities that had imposed restrictions in earlier waves did not during the fourth. People had simply become inured to sickness and death. We may see the same happen with Covid.