[ad_1]
News on Monday that a vaccine developed by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech was found to be 90% effective in providing protection against Covid-19 could encourage people to start adjusting plans for spring, epidemiologist Michael said. Osterholm, who has been appointed as the president’s coronavirus adviser. elect Joe Biden. But he warned that people still need to be very careful.
As the results bring the vaccine closer to approval for widespread use, Dr Osterholm said, a big piece of information missing from the study is what the vaccine prevented – common cold symptoms or hospitalizations and deaths.
The United States, meanwhile, is set to enter ‘Covid Hell’ within the next three to four months, Dr Osterholm said on Monday.
“We could easily have 200,000 cases [a day] in just a few weeks, ”he said. “Even if this vaccine works really well, it won’t save us at all until next spring.”
Right now, he said, nearly every state in the Midwest is losing control of the disease and hospitals are being overrun with healthcare workers getting sick and exhausted. The United States has never brought the virus under control, even when cases were at its lowest, he said.
The country has reported more than 100,000 new cases of coronavirus per day over the past week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic exceeded 10 million on Monday.
“Unless we suddenly have a major change in our behavior in this country and stop swapping air with each other, we’re going to see astronomical numbers,” said Dr Osterholm, who is also the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
“We’re going to look back in the not too distant future and say, ‘Oh, I could only wish we were back to 100,000 cases a day,’ he said. “We’re going to go way, far more than the 100,000+ cases a day.”
On Monday, Mr Biden unveiled a team of health experts and scientists who will advise the transition team on a plan to bring the coronavirus pandemic in the United States under control.
Dr Osterholm said he couldn’t speak to the team’s work except that he was happy that discussions were underway at the moment.
Listen to the podcast.
[ad_2]
Source link