After 3 Years, 'COVID-19 Emergency' Lifted... "Variants May Spread Within 2 Years"

US Epidemic Experts Say "Approximately 20% Chance of Variant Virus Emergence"

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the end of the international public health emergency (PHEIC) for COVID-19, while U.S. experts have warned that a variant similar to the Omicron virus could resurge within two years.

On the 5th (local time), The Washington Post (WP) reported that epidemic experts sent a serious warning to the White House, stating that there is about a 20% chance that a variant virus comparable to the COVID-19 Omicron variant could emerge within the next two years.

Ahead of the scheduled end of the COVID-19 public health emergency on the 11th, the White House reportedly convened about 10 experts in virology and immunobiology to discuss the possibility of the emergence of variant viruses that evade vaccines and treatments.

Despite the recent end of the public health emergency, there are projections that new variant viruses could emerge and attack immune systems that have adapted to fight Omicron again.

Trevor Bedford, a researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, based on the fact that since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 there has been one transmission event of a variant on the scale of Omicron, predicted that "there is a 40% chance of a transmission event of the same scale occurring between now and May 2025."

Additionally, Dan Barouch, a professor at Harvard Medical School, said, "No one says the probability (of variant emergence) is 0% or 80%," adding, "It is higher than a very small possibility but uncertain."