Gunzburg assessed the possibility of COVID-19 transition into a seasonal disease

Alexander Gintsburg, director of the Gamaleya Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, assessed the possibility of COVID-19 becoming a seasonal disease on the air of the Russia 24 channel. In his opinion, there is no seasonal dependence in the behavior of coronavirus infection. His words lead TASS.

“If the flu, as we see it, is a seasonal disease that is easily predictable during the year, then it is completely impossible to say this with the example of the three strains of COVID-19 that we have experienced or are experiencing over the past two years. I don’t see any seasonality in the behavior of the new pathogen,” Gunzburg explained.

Gunzburg noted that against the backdrop of the emergence of new strains of coronavirus, it is imperative to work out processes for the possibility of adapting vaccine preparations, however, according to the scientist, this does not mean that it will be necessary to adapt anti-covid drugs.

“Those developments that the world community had on influenza cannot be completely transferred to the case of the omicron, because the ecology of these two pathogens, influenza and coronavirus, as we now see, is completely different, despite their great similarity in the final stage, at the stage when they already infect a person, ”Gintsburg added.

He also expressed the opinion that the regulation, which made it possible in the case of the influenza virus to very clearly plan the transition from one antigenic variant of the vaccine preparation to another, does not work at all with SARS-CoV-2.

Earlier it became known that experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) may visit Russia to inspect the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in the coming month. In early January, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) recognized the standards for the production of the Russian coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V, issuing a corresponding positive conclusion.