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It is only a matter of time before Britain’s highly contagious variant of COVID-19 wreaks havoc around the world, a leading epidemiologist warned Thursday.
“This B.1.1.7 push is going to happen. It is not a question of if. It’s going to happen, ”Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told CNN’s“ New Day ”.
“And if you follow what happened last year, the upper Midwest and Northeast light up first. They have the first set of cases and the southern Sun Belt states then light up, ”Osterholm said.
“Even though we are seeing a few instances in this area, note my word, in the next six to eight weeks, we are going to see this area light up as well. We need to release more vaccines. That’s the key message right now, ”he added.
The most transmissible and potentially the deadliest variant has been found in 49 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, DC, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The expert said the United States should focus on delivering the first doses of the vaccine to as many people as possible now.
Once there are more vaccines available this summer, the country is expected to distribute second doses, Osterholm added.
“I’m telling you right now… we’re just starting to go up.” Denying it will not help us. We walk into the mouth of this viral monster like we don’t know it’s here. And it’s here, ”he said.
“Now is the time to do whatever we need to do to slow transmission, not to open ourselves up, and we need to get more vaccines to more people,” the epidemiologist added.
His comments come a day after Pfizer said its vaccine was 100% effective in a study in children aged 12 to 15.
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