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Lightening the viral load to lessen covid-19 severity

BMJ 2020; 371 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m4763 (Published 10 December 2020) Cite this as: BMJ 2020;371:m4763

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Between Pandemic Fatigue and Ski: Winter is Coming

The severity of the 2nd wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has surprised European countries (1). And many countries might not be well prepared for a probably severe 3rd wave in the coming months.

The situation is indeed grim. Populations are tired of Covid-19 mitigation policies (2). There is a pandemic fatigue with people distrusting policy makers and angry of taking ever changing precautions whose benefits are not directly apparent. They are also more anxious for the social and economic consequences than for the population health impact of the pandemic. In Switzerland for instance, there is currently much concern to save the activities of ski resorts, what appears at odds with the strength of the 2nd wave over the whole country. Hence, the number of reported Covid-19 deaths per million habitants is since several weeks higher in Switzerland than in USA or UK (3).

Further, healthcare providers are exhausted; they face high adversity, workloads, and stress over long period of time, and many are experiencing burnout (4). The 2nd wave has hit them harder than the 1st one, and we are on track for a strong 3rd wave in many European countries. Some healthcare providers have died (5) and more will during the next wave. Winter is coming.

1) Burgess S, Smith D, Kenyon JC, Gill D. Lightening the viral load to lessen covid-19 severity BMJ 2020; 371: m4763
2) U.S. Surgeon General Blames 'Pandemic Fatigue' For Recent COVID-19 Surge https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/11/14/934986232, accessed December 12, 2020
3) Our World in Data. Coronavirus Pandemic. Data Explorer. https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data-explorer, accessed December 12, 2020.
4) Morgantini LA, Naha U, Wang H, Francavilla S, Acar Ö, Flores JM, et al. Factors contributing to healthcare professional burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic: A rapid turnaround global survey. PLoS ONE 2020; 15(9): e0238217.
5) Green A. A tribute to some of the doctors who died from COVID-19. The Lancet 2020; 396(10264): 1720-9.

Competing interests: No competing interests

13 December 2020
Arnaud Chiolero
Epidemiologist and Professor of public health
Population Health Laboratory (#PopHealthLab), University of Fribourg, Switzerland
University of Fribourg, Switzerland
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