The OP asked will the Omnicron variant end the pandemic for good ...that means downgrading eventually to endemic. All pandemics in the history of the world have ended and Covid-19 won't be an exception.
Here's an article with good descriptions of the different terms applied to disease prevalence. The last statement by Schaffner describes how influenza has existed in a mostly
endemic state throughout the world for nearly 8,000 years in recorded history. Occasionally an influenza variant will cause epidemics or pandemics, but some years don't even reach the outbreak defination of 'exceeding normal expectations.'
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/w...uestions-about-the-future-of-covid/ar-AASZb7A
Excerpt:
(Emphasis mine)
Outbreaks are generally defined as a sudden rise in the number of cases of a disease that exceeds normal expectations.
An epidemic is essentially “a big outbreak of disease” that is usually limited by time and geography...
...a pandemic is an epidemic that has spread over a wider geographical area, often worldwide, and is typically caused by a new virus or strain of virus that humans usually have little to no immunity against. In addition to having much higher numbers of infections and deaths than epidemics, pandemics tend to have larger social and economic impacts.
In the case of the coronavirus, “the end of the pandemic doesn’t mean that the virus is gone,” Schaffner said. “It’s just that it’s in this kind of live-with, smoldering stage [endemic], and we’ll continue to have to cope with it depending upon what the characteristics of that virus are.”
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