A website about COVID-19 in summer 2023, seriously? – Yes!
COVID-19 may have disappeared from the media, politics and the consciousness of many people, but the virus itself is still there and will not go away anytime soon. Regardless of whether the pandemic is now over and we are already in the endemic state or not.
On the contrary: In medicine, «endemic» means that cases of a disease in a certain population or in a limited region occur continuously. The term also says nothing about the severity of the course of the disease. AIDS and malaria are just some of the diseases that are endemic and have lost nothing of their danger to the individual.

As far as the severity of the disease is concerned, in SARS-CoV-2 – as in all viral infections – a distinction must be made between immediate, acute course of the disease on the one hand and long-term consequences on the other.
An increased risk of a severe acute course is given especially for older people and people with certain previous illnesses.
According to current evidence, however, all people regardless of age, health condition and severity of the acute course of the disease seem to have a risk of serious long-term consequences.
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Because the virus can cause changes to the vessels, organs and brain, there is not only a risk of developing Long COVID, but also the evidence of an accumulation of heart attacks, cardiac arrest, heart failure, cardiac arrhythmia, brain strokes, pulmonary embolism, Diabetes mellitus and dementia due to COVID-19 infection is increasing.
Furthermore, it is also known that COVID-19 can weaken the immune system at least for a while and thus cause worse courses of infections with other pathogens.
In this respect, especially reinfections could be problematic.
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This is why we should all try to avoid as many infections as possible, even in the summer of 2023.