Omicron variant, Crisanti: “Plateau? A week to understand if peak is exceeded”

“Are we on the plateau of the Omicron curve in Italy? In short. Yesterday there were signs of an increase in cases, but in any case I think so”. This will be, says virologist Andrea Crisanti, the decisive week to understand if the latest maxi wave of Covid-19, supported by the new mutant of Sars-CoV-2, has taken the desired direction, the one that leads to the end. “I think that this week – the director of the Molecular Medicine Department of the University of Padua explains to Adnkronos Salute – we will surely know if we have crossed the peak or if we probably have a small recovery linked to schools”, that is, the resumption of lessons after school. Christmas holidays, which was also accompanied by an intense testing activity. Then the vaccines. On the fourth dose of the anti-Covid vaccine “we are in total confusion and the fault lies with the companies that do not release the data. To date it is not known whether it will be useful or not. We groping in the dark” is the thought expressed by the virologist. While in Israel, a country further ahead with the evaluations on the second booster, experts already recommend it for all over 18s, elsewhere the debate is far from closed. “I can’t pronounce on this issue without data,” says the director of the Department of Molecular Medicine at the University of Padua. Even if the strategy of too many repeated and close recalls is counterproductive (for example, the European Medicines Agency Ema has proposed the risk of reducing the level of antibodies that are produced at each administration) “nobody knows. this moment “, reiterates Crisanti. For the WHO, 2022 could decree the end of the emergency phase of the pandemic. And the virologist thinks more or less the same way, net of crazy variants. “How will Italy face what promises to be a new phase of Covid-19? I think it is time to adapt – he explains – The state of emergency expires in March, and it is also time for it to end. Because also the extension of the state of emergency is a manifestation of the fact that we have not adapted to the emergency “.