Will there be a second coronavirus wave?
More countries have planned to ease coronavirus restrictions, but scientists are wary about how the second wave of the pandemic will impact the world.
According to Peter Marks, director of the US Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, “it’s unfortunately not unlikely that we may see a second wave or even a third wave” until a vaccine is discovered.
Questions are being considered as research into the virus continues.
Can you get COVID-19 more than once?
It is still not known if people who had been infected with COVID-19 would develop immunity. Due to the newness of the disease, there is no solid data on the survivors’ immunity, USA Today reported. While some studies suggest that reinfection is uncommon, more data is needed to figure out how long immunity might last.
What will the second wave look like?
Countries previously praised for their success in containing coronavirus, such as Japan and Singapore, have seen a rise in the number of new confirmed cases in recent weeks.
“We will not get rid of the disease until every country has a system to detect the disease and stop it near the origin, as or as close to the origin as possible, before it spreads,” Olga Jonas, a senior fellow at the Harvard Global Health Institute told Vox.
Gabriel Leung, an infectious disease epidemiologist and dean of medicine at the University of Hong Kong, wrote on the New York Times that loosening and tightening the epidemic response might be the key.
“To see us through the next year or more, we must all prepare for several cycles of a ‘suppress and lift’ policy – cycles during which restrictions are applied and relaxed, applied again and relaxed again, in ways that can keep the pandemic under control but at an acceptable economic and social cost,” Leung wrote.
Professor Rob Moodie from the Melbourne School of Population Health at the University of Melbourne said countries need to be careful in maintaining social distancing measures.
“We’re going to get in a situation … [where we have to look at] the balance between is the cure worse than the disease? And that is the ultimate dilemma that we’re facing right now,” Professor Moodie told the ABC.
“What is our end game in any country? When can we start to open things so people can get together again so they can protect their livelihoods? We don’t know that yet.”