‘Unsurprising’: Covid-19 among leading cause of death in 2022
A leading infectious disease expert has weighed in on the detection of a “highly mutated” Covid variant in Australia, amid a grim new report about virus deaths.
A leading infectious disease expert has hosed down fears about a ‘highly mutated’ Covid variant detected in Australia and stressed “this is the reality of life over the next 10 years.”
Dr Peter Collignon said the detection of the Pirola variant in a lab in Western Australia earlier this month, which some experts have raised alarm bells about, wasn’t a huge concern.
“Unless we are seeing a higher mortality rate, or high hospitalisation rate or no protection from previous infection we shouldn’t get too excited,” he told news.com.au.
“This is the reality of life over the next 10 years. We are going to see this again and again and again. Unless there is something dramatically different, let’s learn to live with it.”
His comments come amid grim new data released this week which revealed Covid-19 is now one of Australia’s leading causes of death.
The virus was responsible for more than one in 20 deaths in 2022, making it the third-leading cause of death, according to a new Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) report.
Heart disease remained the biggest killer followed by dementia.
There were 9859 deaths from Covid-19 last year.
A further 2782 people, who died of other causes, had mentioned it as a contributing factor.
The Omicron variant, which was first detected in Australia in November 2021, drove most of the deaths in 2022, the ABS said.
But Dr Peter Collignon said he was “not surprised by the findings”.
“We deferred a lot of these deaths with restrictions in 2021 but you can’t defer it forever,” he told news.com.au.
He noted the average age of people dying of Covid-19 in 2022 was in their mid 80s, “mainly older people” and predicted Covid-19 would become “less marked as time goes on”.
“In 2023 we will see increased deaths and it will probably rank in the top 10 but year to year it will drop down in numbers and severity,” he said.
He said while restrictions were necessary he acknowledged some were overkill.
“We needed restrictions until people became vaccinated,” he said.
“But some of the restrictions really didn’t add much like the outdoor restrictions around exercise except to add to a lot of social and economic grief,” he said.
Infectious diseases pediatrician Robert Booy echoed Dr Collignon’s thoughts.
He predicted while there were 10,000 excess deaths to Covid-19 in 2022 it was likely to be 5,000 next year and even less after that.
Prof Booy also rubbished suggestions the viral respiratory illness Human Metapneumovirus (hMPV) is cause for concern.
“It stems from the common cold,” he said.
“It is a virus that transmits through the respiratory route and it will probably decrease in numbers in the coming months.”
“There is no treatment and the great majority of people recover in a week, certainly if you are at risk of multiple medical problems you can progress in a cold and pneunomia. It is just another cold virus that that outbreaks.”
Symptoms of hMPV are similar to the common cold including nasal congestion, coughs, shortness of breath and a fever.
Although some severe cases can cause complications that lead to bronchitis or pneumonia and can be more dangerous for immunocompromised and vulnerable groups.
- with NCA Newswire, Madeleine Achenza
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