Infectious disease expert warns next wave of coronavirus will hit younger people too

Infectious disease expert Michael Osterholm is warning Americans not to let their guard down even as coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to decline.

“Let me just say we’re in the eye of the hurricane right now,” Osterholm said on “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “It looks like things are going really well. We even see a blue sky. ”

But, Osterholm declared B.1.1.7 more contagious. a UK variant leaps below the surface. Responsible for only 1 to 4 percent of cases in the United States a month ago, the variant has now grown to 30 to 40 percent of cases.

“And we’ve seen in Europe that when we hit that 50% mark, you’ll see cases increase,” said Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

Osterholm also said the new variant was spreading even among younger populations – just as schools in many areas are reopening – and referred to an outbreak of high school sports in his home state of Minnesota on the week last.

“We are going to have a tough day ahead in the older population and in the younger population with this new variant of the virus,” he said.

Osterholm praised the pace of the country’s vaccination effort, but warned that the numbers so far and the vaccine supply expected in the coming weeks “aren’t really going to solve the problem at all.”

“We still have a lot of high risk people,” he said. “When this surge occurs, they will be very vulnerable.”

See the full discussion in the clip above.