The Delta wave is slowly coming down; what’s next?

Nov 07, 2021 Dr Zulfikar Bux, Features / Columnists

By Dr. Zulfikar Bux

Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Vanderbilt Medical Center

Kaieteur News – The cases from the delta wave in Guyana are slowly coming down from its peak now and it’s only a matter of time before the number of deaths follow suit. We should be able to see limited numbers of infections and deaths as this month comes to an end. So, what does this mean? Is the pandemic finally over? Or is there another twist in the story? None of us know for sure but I think that this virus still has a few tricks up its sleeve and we should not let our guards down.
Trend of this virus so far
Since the pandemic started, this virus has been mutating to forms that are more dangerous about once every six months. The infections and deaths follow in waves according to how the new variant behaves and travels. By now, this virus should be weakening and not forming newer, and deadlier variants. A naturally occurring virus does not get stronger and deadlier for such long periods. There is currently the delta plus variant which is a variant under investigation. Some experts are theorising that it may be behind the rise in cases in the UK and may be 10 percent more infectious than the original delta variant. However, that needs to be confirmed with good data before we can say that this variant will cause a new wave of infections and deaths. It may weaken out like the mu variant did. If this occurs, then we may see this virus starting to behave like the flu virus with seasonal but less deadly infections.
Can vaccines clear the last hurdle?
The current vaccines available for use cannot eradicate this virus or cause herd immunity. Their main goal is to prevent severity of the disease and minimise deaths. There are sufficient breakthrough infections in the vaccinated population to rule out the “herd immunity” theory that we were hoping for when the vaccines came out. For now, the current vaccines are doing an excellent job at weakening the effects of the virus until science can possibly come up with a game changing vaccine that helps us to kill the virus or fully prevent its spread.
Can the Merck or Pfizer Pill be our saviour?
Merck and Pfizer recently announced that their pills Paxlovid (made by Pfizer) and Lavgevrio (made by Merck) help decrease deaths in the high risk COVID-19 patients between 50-89 percent once used EARLY. More data is needed before we can read too much into these new pills but I can tell you that we already have a cheap and very safe wonder pill which has shown in many parts to reduce deaths by similar numbers. It’s called Ivermectin, and myself and many others have been using it with great success EARLY in the disease. There has been a shame campaign on this drug ever since data started to come out on its effectiveness. Now, there are two newer, more expensive drugs coming out that cause similar effects when used early and they are being promoted rigorously before full data can be released about them.
As we wait to see if the worse is behind us with this pandemic, we should not let our guards down. Stay safe and ride the wave till it’s gone and hopefully, we find safe lands.

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