The world is currently going through a third wave of the epidemic, which has dampened hopes of a real end to the crisis by the summer of 2021. However, the tremendous progress made since March 2020 allows us to be confident that the end of the epidemic will be reached in the fall of 2021 for some and at the end of this year for others.

Now that the vaccine has begun to be administered and has shown efficacy in the countries that have been able to use it massively, Israel, the United States and Great Britain, one of the challenges becomes that of developing a vaccine that is also effective against the variants. In this sense, a South African study suggests that a vaccine made from the South African strain could offer immunity against the other variants.

It is in this perspective that all laboratories continue to search for vaccines adapted to the evolution of the virus and hope to become leaders again after having lost the first vaccine battle, such as Sanofi or Merck with Molnupiravir for example.

Another equally important issue is the discovery of a treatment that allows people to live with the virus. In this category, many avenues have been pursued, some of them controversial, such as hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin or remvesidir, often due to dissensions within the scientific community on the methods of evaluating their effectiveness, as some of these drugs can only be effective under very specific conditions.

Some treatments, among those studied at the beginning of the pandemic, have confirmed their effectiveness, such as Regeneron :

Other treatments have not yet been successful and are in the process of being approved, such as the treatment developed by the Pasteur Institute in Lille, which is due to start clinical trials soon:

Ab8 molecule by the University of Pittsburgh

New treatments are at the stage of first encouraging results and must confirm their effectiveness by passing through the prism of validation protocols, such as the Ab8 molecule isolated by the University of Pittsburgh, which could completely neutralize the virus without side effects:

Finally, other treatments, coming from natural or homeopathic medicine, are confronted with the skepticism of the population and the medical profession related to this type of medication. This was the case of treatments based on Artemisia, developed in Madagascar for example, or more recently of a treatment based on spikenard in Guadeloupe.

Nasal spray by Pharma & Beauty

In many cases, as in the case of a nasal spray developed by Pharma & Beauty, the medical authorities are reluctant to give their consent if the protocols have not been strictly followed and all the studies carried out. They believe that the marketing of products, regardless of the urgency of the need related to the pandemic, should not be done at the expense of safety and do not want their credibility to be called into question by decisions taken in haste.

However, whatever the medical discoveries that will definitely defeat the pandemic, the consequences of the crisis will have a medium to long term impact on our daily lives. In this sense, various authors are beginning to propose avenues for reflection, for example in a book written by two members of the World Economic Forum in Davos, The Great Reset. The authors start from the observation that each major crisis, pandemic, war,..., is at the origin of a major change in society, in particular the role of the State at the end of these crises. These reflections are already the object of warnings from the conspiracy movements that would see in them the beginnings of a new world order. Whether the authors' reflections arouse support or controversy, it is clear that the pandemic has already brought about changes and that others are still to come.