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The Guardian
5 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
What do we know about the Covid-19 virus five years on?
It's been five years since the start of the Covid pandemic. Although most of the government mandates, from social distancing to face masks, have been consigned to the past, the virus is still prevalent – and capable of causing real harm. Although it was initially forecast to become a seasonal illness, the virus is on the rise in the US – making it far from the common-cold-style winter illness that was expected. Experts told the Guardian a lot of predictions made about how Covid-19 would evolve have turned out to be wrong. Five years on, what do we know about the virus? Although news of a summer wave in the US has sparked fears it could be replicated in the UK, the latest data from the UK Health Security Agency shows that cases dropped by 28% over the past week to reach 1,046. Since most people don't test any more, this is unlikely to reflect the true prevalence. The data for the past year shows levels have remained consistent, with a large spike last October. Experts assumed that as Covid became endemic, it would change into a winter bug, like the common cold or flu. UKHSA stats show this is not the case. 'It is absolutely true that you are as likely to get Covid in summer as in winter,' said Danny Altmann, an immunologist at Imperial College London. He added: 'It's been a shifting discussion – when do we calm down and say it's become an endemic coronavirus like the common cold. I think we're still so far off that place. There's a kind of optimism that it's just a winter sniffle, but it's not a sniffle; it's quite symptomatic, especially in vulnerable people and in the excess death figures, and also it is absolutely not seasonal.' Altmann said that, although there is a perception that, as a coronavirus, Covid-19 is akin to a common cold, in reality it is closer to the flu in terms of the death rate, its impact on the NHS and the potential severity of symptoms. Simon Williams, a sociologist at Swansea University who has researched public views on the pandemic, said: 'We're getting to the point where there's a legitimate question about whether it will ever be [a winter virus]. It's not a typical respiratory virus in terms of seasonality.' Adam Kucharski, a professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said that because Covid-19 evolves quickly – twice as fast as the fastest flu – it is less constrained by season. 'Whereas a small change in transmissibility conditions is enough to stop flu in summer, Sars-CoV-2 can basically evolve its way over this barrier,' he said. The main Covid viruses in circulation are the Omicron subvariants. These are 'obviously milder than Wuhan or Delta', Altmann said, adding it's not the case that they are becoming progressively milder, but rather population immunity is higher due to vaccines and prior infections. The newest variant, NB.1.8.1, has been detected in the UK and international data suggests it is growing as a proportion of all Covid cases. World Health Organization analysis found the new strain is more contagious, but vaccination gives significant protection. Williams said we can expect to keep seeing the virus evolve, similar to how there are new flu virus combinations each year. The experts agreed the main problem is the low take-up of the free vaccine, which is available to people at greatest risk from Covid infection, including those aged 75 and over and those who are immunocompromised. Altmann said anyone who could afford it may wish to pay for the vaccine – not least because he hears regularly from new long Covid sufferers: 'Who wouldn't feel safer with boosted neutralising antibodies and T-cells?' He noted there is a spectrum of suffering, with people who are infected occasionally and mildly or non-symptomatically on one end, and on the other, those living with long Covid. There is also a third, under-researched, group in the middle of young or middle-aged people who get four to six reinfections per year, and may have to take several days off work each time. 'It's non-trivial and makes it quite hard to do your work,' he said. Although there is still hybrid immunity in the population because most people received several vaccines during the pandemic, there is a growing population of children who would have been too young to have received them at the time. The experts feared that growing vaccine hesitancy, which Williams described as 'one of the most pressing concerns' in public health, could have an impact on whether these children receive a jab or people turn up for their boosters. Another consideration, when it comes to building immunity, is the growing body of research suggesting that for several months after a Covid infection, people become more vulnerable to other infections and there can be lingering effects on the heart, cardiovascular system and the brain. 'We're only five years into this virus, there's a lot of question marks and unknowns,' said Williams.
The Guardian
18-06-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Ondine Sherwood obituary
My friend Ondine Sherwood, who has died from lung cancer aged 65, was one of the earliest campaigners for the recognition of Long Covid. Having failed to recover fully from Covid-19 in March 2020, she discovered that others were suffering similarly and GPs did not seem to know how to diagnose them. Ondine rapidly became the main spokesperson for the patient-created term 'Long Covid'. She founded the group Long Covid SOS that June and secured charitable status and trustees. Ondine lobbied politicians, doctors and civil servants for recognition of the illness. She stressed that the narrative of Covid being mild and flu-like unless the patient was vulnerable was not true. In July 2020, Long Covid SOS sent a letter to the prime minister, Boris Johnson, copied to many relevant parties, warning of the risk of the numbers of people with Long Covid increasing significantly if there were a second wave. Ondine appeared on Newsnight and Woman's Hour and was involved in setting up the first meeting with the World Health Organization for patients with Long Covid. Gradually, in large part through her efforts, public awareness of the desperate needs of these patients grew. As a result of Ondine's advocacy, the 'Long Covid groups', four campaign groups including Long Covid SOS, became core participants in the government's Covid inquiry, in which I was instructed as lead counsel. In October 2023, Ondine gave powerful and compelling evidence. Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London, said: 'Ondine's drive and vision in recognising the emergent picture of Long Covid and her determination to 'do something' was prescient, bold, and totally in character. Long Covid is now a clinical entity described in more than 50,000 peer-reviewed medical journals papers, estimated to (still) affect 2 million in the UK and 400 million globally, but was then debated, questioned or even mocked.' Jane Ryan, solicitor for the Long Covid groups, noted that 'it is without doubt that absent Ondine's advocacy, the recognition and support for patients suffering post-acute sequelae from Covid-19 [the lingering health problems that can persist after the initial acute phase of the illness has passed] would have been far worse'. Ondine was born in Stoke Newington, London, the younger daughter of Joss Sherwood, a salmon smoker, and his wife, Kitty (nee Katanka). She studied textile technology and design at Umist in Manchester, and went into the fashion industry, working for Jaeger and the Burton Group. In 2019 she undertook a master's degree at UCL in the politics and economics of health. Ondine's approach was grounded in principles of public health and she leaves an important legacy for all those with Long Covid and their families. She was passionate, tenacious, dynamic and beautiful, with a huge zest for life. She is survived by her husband Steve Kriss, a podiatrist, whom she met in 1980, and married in 1985, and their three sons, Sam, Benji and Alexander.
