![\"\"](\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Ellis-SIDE.jpg\")
<\/a>Dr. Michael Ellis, an infectious disease specialist and UTMC’s chief medical officer, said we can\u2019t predict COVID-19’s behavior, but there are reasons for cautious optimism.<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re now clearly on the downslope for cases caused by the omicron variant,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cThe current models and prevailing thought are that infections will continue to come down to pre-omicron levels.\u201d<\/p>\n
As of Feb. 13, Ohio\u2019s seven-day moving average for new cases was 3,173, an 89% decrease from its peak of more than 28,000 in mid-January. Lucas County has seen a similar decline.<\/p>\n
While Ellis doesn\u2019t see the omicron subvariant, known as BA.2, reversing that trend in the short term, he said we can\u2019t know for sure how COVID-19 will behave in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cOmicron is a great example of that. Within one month it became not just the predominant strain, but essentially the only strain circulating in the United States,\u201d he said. \u201cThings change quickly and these variants can be transmitted around the globe quickly. We have to always maintain situational awareness and continual readiness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even so, Ellis said there are reasons for cautious optimism.<\/p>\n
Hospitalizations are falling, both locally and nationally. Deaths, which remain high, are expected to begin falling soon because, between vaccinations and previous infections, a significant portion of the U.S. population has some level of immunity to the virus.<\/p>\n
Research also has come remarkably far in the past two years, Ellis said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should take stock of the positive things that have happened over the last two years,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve developed antiviral therapeutics, both intravenous and oral, we\u2019ve developed monoclonal antibody treatments, we\u2019ve developed in record speed effective vaccines and importantly, those vaccine platforms can be used to tackle new, important strains of the virus.\u201d<\/p>\n
While omicron rendered two highly relied upon monoclonal antibody treatments ineffective \u2014 leading the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to revise their emergency use authorizations \u2014 supplies of a third antibody treatment called sotrovimab that is effective against omicron have improved.<\/p>\n
Ellis said UTMC now has an adequate stock of sotrovimab as well as other therapeutics that are effective against the omicron variant.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith less virus circulating, less strain on our medical infrastructure and better supply of effective therapeutics, I\u2019m hopeful we can move back to more of our normal lives and activities,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s so important for everyone, not just for their livelihoods, but for their wellbeing and their family\u2019s wellbeing.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also said it\u2019s important for people to recognize that even though the COVID-19 vaccines were not as protective against infection against omicron as they were the previous variants, they remained very effective protecting against hospitalization and death.<\/p>\n
Since Jan. 1, 2021, fewer than 4,000 fully vaccinated individuals have been hospitalized in Ohio with COVID-19 and fewer than 1,000 fully vaccinated people have died from it, compared with more than 60,000 hospitalizations and almost 19,000 deaths in people who were not fully vaccinated.<\/p>\n
Finally, Ellis has high praise for the entire workforce at UTMC.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur team has done an exceptional job weathering this most recent surge, showing flexibility, resilience and compassion,\u201d he said. \u201cThe pandemic has been fatiguing for everyone \u2014 emotionally, psychologically and physically \u2014 but I really value the sense of duty and purpose that our team has shown throughout this pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dr. Michael Ellis, an infectious disease specialist and chief medical officer at UTMC, said we\u2019re in a much better place than we were just a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":849,"featured_media":71565,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,72,1,7,63],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71563"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/849"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71563"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71566,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71563\/revisions\/71566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}