Medical experts believe that Covid-19 could never develop into a normal seasonal flu, Helsinki’s Ilta-Snomat newspaper reported. Ilka Zulkunen, professor of virology at the University of Turku, said that the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid is clearly different from other seasonal coronaviruses that cause the flu.
Ilkka Zulkunen said, “I don’t see the possibility that the virus will change so dramatically. I don’t see the coronavirus becoming much less dangerous for at least a few years.”
Although the Omicron coronavirus variant is widely considered less likely to cause severe disease and require hospital treatment, Zulkunen and Olli Vapalahti, professors of zoonotic virology at the University of Helsinki, agree that Omicron is dangerous.
According to Julkunen, in Finland, more people have died from Omicron than all previous coronavirus variants.
Before November 2021, when the Omicron variant emerged, about 1,200 people had died from Covid-19 in Finland. The country’s current coronavirus death toll has crossed 3,000.
The virus can cause mild symptoms in a population that has a high immunity due to vaccination or previous infection.
The number of hospitalizations of Covid-19 patients in Finland has gradually increased to record levels as the immunological protection provided by two or three vaccine doses has worn off.
The WHO warned in January that the next form of SARS-CoV-2 could be even more dangerous than Omicron. Since the beginning of this year, a growing number of scientists around the world have said that the SARS-CoV-2 virus may never become a common seasonal flu but may persist as a disease that causes severe symptoms and death, especially among the elderly.
Zulkunen explained that the virus is constantly evolving into new variants, each one more dangerous than the last.
Two different viruses can recombine in the same cell.
“Recombinant can also occur when two different viruses end up in the same cell. Gene exchange can occur, creating new variants. There is already evidence of this in Delta and Omicron and Finland’s two forms of Omicron,” Vapalahti said.
Still, high levels of immunity from vaccination or prior infection reduce the risk of severe Covid-19 outcomes, the professors stressed.