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Despite the recent decline in domestic virus cases, Andy Slavitt, senior advisor to the White House COVID-19 response team, said on Monday that variant B.1.1.7 would likely fuel the next wave of growth in case as the country continues its vaccinations.
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“Unfortunately, we can’t predict the future and we know this virus has only been full of surprises for us since arriving and I think there are more surprises to come,” Slavitt told MSNBC. “But I don’t think we’re close [to] out of the woods. I don’t expect that we will see smooth sailing from here, ”he added in part.
Slavitt’s comments followed shortly after a warning from Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, saying the next 14 weeks will be the worst in the pandemic.
Slavitt and Osterholm have centered their projections around the variant strain first detected in the UK, with a total of 1,173 cases now reported in 40 US states and its impact on the US in the coming weeks. The comments follow new findings from the UK government, concluding that “infection” with variant B.1.1.7 “is likely” to be associated with an increased risk of hospitalization and death compared to “d ‘other viruses.
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Based on multiple databases across the UK, scientists said the variant was likely 30% to 70% more deadly than the original strain. They had previously concluded that the variant was considered up to 70% more transmissible, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson last month tweeting that it “could also be associated with a higher degree of mortality”.
“I think the next 14 weeks will be the worst in the pandemic,” Osterholm told CBS “This Morning” on Monday. “People don’t want to hear this, but if we look at what these variants do, especially the UK one, and see what it’s done in Europe, let’s see what it does in the Middle East, it starts now. to start it here in the US. We’ll see it unfold. “
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Following the guidelines just released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on reopening schools, Osterholm has predicted “big efforts” to open some schools, but a rapid increase in variant-fueled cases will lead to rapid closures over the next six to eight. weeks.
More than 14 million people in the United States have received two doses, and at least 52.9 million doses have been given, according to data collected by the CDC. More than 27.6 million people in the United States have been infected, with at least 485,000 lives lost to the new disease, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Alexandria Hein and David Aaro of Fox News contributed to this report.
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