There are two important things the US can do to prevent more infections, hospitalizations and deaths, said Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN.
“A, you continue to suppress and double public health measures and B, you do everything you can to get as many people vaccinated as quickly and as quickly as possible,” he said on Saturday.
Therefore, experts call for continued safety measures.
“We say it over and over again and we need the locals, we need the governors and the mayors and others to be able to say, we are not out there yet,” Fauci said. “People say, ‘Well, you just want to limit us forever. ‘No, it’s not going to last forever, because every day you get vaccinated four million, three million people, you get closer and closer to control. ‘
One expert compared the current state of Covid-19 in the US to a “Category 5 hurricane status, relative to the rest of the world.”
“At this point, we’ll see in the next two weeks that the highest number of cases worldwide has been reported since the start of the pandemic. In terms of the United States, we’re just beginning this boom, we have not even really started yet. to see it again, ‘Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
He warned that the country is now in the cycle where the Upper Midwest begins a fourth boom.
“I think it was a wake-up call for everyone yesterday when Michigan reported 8,400 new cases, and we are now seeing an increasing number of serious diseases, ICU hospitalizations, in individuals between the ages of 30 and 50 who have not been vaccinated,” Osterholm said. .
However, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, says that the amount of immunity in the U.S. population can help prevent a new upsurge.
“I think there’s enough immunity in the population that you are not going to see a real fourth wave of infection,” he told CBS ‘Face the Nation on Sunday.
Gottlieb, who also sits on Pfizer’s board, said he thinks that with the rate of vaccination, coupled with the number of Americans already infected, there are about 200 million Americans who have some degree of immunity in them. . “
“What we say has doubled, just lasts a little longer there,” Fauci added, “and the vaccine, and the vaccinations of people in this country are going to dominate the increase in the virus. going to win. ‘
States that sound the alarm
Officials in several states have already reported worrying data.
“It’s a lot more contagious and we see that whether it’s in youth sports now, or it’s involved in some of our restaurants again,” Whitmer said.
According to Bruce Vanderhoff, chief medical officer of the Ohio Department of Health, the variety is also increasing.
“Ohio is staying in a race against a virus that is now more contagious and on our heels again,” Vanderhoff said. “We can win this race as long as we do not falter; as long as we continue with a constant masking and vaccination.”
Gov.Organ, Kate Brown, also expressed concern Friday about the state’s latest case and hospitalization numbers.
Officials in Vermont said Friday they are concerned that the increase in Covid-19 cases experiencing their state could lead to more hospitalizations and deaths.
“My optimism is for the future, and the future is very near. But as far as the present is concerned, I am honestly very worried,” said Dr. Mark Levine, the state’s health commissioner, said.
The role that vaccinations play
Experts and state leaders have stressed that Covid-19 vaccinations will be the country’s fastest way to return to normal.
People who are fully vaccinated can travel at low risk for themselves, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said. Travel is currently not recommended yet, while the Covid-19 cases are increasingly occurring in the US.
Meanwhile, different parts of the country are navigating the role that vaccinations will play in returning to normalcy.
The governor cited issues of freedom and privacy as the primary basis for the action, arguing that the implementation and application of vaccine passports would create two classes of citizens based on vaccinations.
“Individual Covid-19 vaccination records are private health information and should not be shared by a mandate,” the order said.
The Mississippi government, Tate Reeves, also says it does not support vaccine passports, and that the low vaccination rates in its state – that is 42nd out of 50 vaccinations per capita – are due to a reluctance to vaccinate. ‘
“We need to make sure we educate people and let them know that this vaccine is safe, and although it is under an emergency, it has undergone clinical trials with literally tens of thousands of individuals who have done it – it has been peer-reviewed,” he said. Reeves told CNN’s Jake Tapper about ‘State of the Union’.
CNN’s Lauren Mascarenhas, Sahar Akbarzai, Anjali Huynh, Amanda Sealy, Artemis Moshtaghian, Laura Ly and Maggie Fox contributed to this report.