Memark: Coronavirus 'looking like another seasonal virus'

Dec. 3—Echoing comments made by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of Cobb's public health department says the coronavirus is likely here to stay, "another seasonal virus ... very much like influenza."

In a county-produced video shared on social media Wednesday, Dr. Janet Memark, of Cobb-Douglas Public Health, noted that Fauci had said humanity's opportunity to eradicate the coronavirus had likely passed. She agreed, adding that vaccines would mean the virus would pose no more a threat to people "as long as these vaccine companies can keep up with this.

"Does that sound familiar, (that) every year we got something new that may not be 100%, but it may prevent you from going to the hospital or dying," she said, likening vaccines for the coronavirus to those long used to fight the seasonal flu.

In the video, Memark also addressed the omicron variant detected last week in South Africa.

"There are more things that we don't know about it than we do know about it," she said. That includes whether it is, as feared, more transmissible than earlier variants of the coronavirus and whether it causes milder or more severe disease.

Memark noted omicron has spread rapidly in South Africa, but cautioned not to draw strong conclusions from that fact, given the relatively low vaccination rate there.

In response to the variant's discovery, several nations, including the United States, have shut down flights to a handful of African countries.

"We shut down the flights too late — it had already spread out everywhere," she said.

Coronavirus tests cannot tell what variant is responsible for a person's infection. To do that, positive samples must be sent to a lab for sequencing. Only a fraction of positive coronavirus tests are ultimately sequenced in the United States, though Memark noted one of the labs that performs coronavirus testing on behalf of Cobb-Douglas Public Health also sequences all of its positive samples.

"So we should pick up on what's happening," Memark said.

Here's a look at Cobb County and state COVID-19 numbers reported Thursday, and how they compare to the day before. All information comes from the Georgia Department of Public Health.

A Cobb-Douglas Public Health report, including data on how the coronavirus is affecting different ZIP codes, genders and ages, is available at reports.mysidewalk.com/17554e75c1#c-452027.

For the Georgia DPH's full report, visit dph.georgia.gov/covid-19-daily-status-report.

National data can be found at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website at cdc.gov.