Dr. Michael Osterholm is the director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. He was also a member of Joe Biden’s COVID-19 Advisory Board during the time between Biden’s election as president and inaugurated.
Osterholm had earlier supported sending children back to school. He said the virus is not a major threat to children. Now the situation has changed.
“Please understand, this B.1.1.7 variant is a brand new ball game,” Osterholm said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “It infects children very easily. Unlike previous strains of the virus, we did not see that children under 8th grade become infected frequently, or that they were not frequently very ill, but not transmitted to the rest of the community. do not have.”
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The B.1.1.7 variant was first identified in the United Kingdom. It is now tearing through parts of the country.
In Minnesota, Osterholm said more than 740 schools reported cases of the variant. In Michigan, more young people end up in hospitals fighting more severe symptoms than were previously seen in children with COVID-19.
This is similar to what health officials have seen in other countries.
The British Medical Journal wrote two months ago that ’emerging evidence from Israel and Italy is infecting more young children with new variants of COVID-19′.
As this happens in his own backyard, Osterholm is now questioning his own previous advice.
“Wherever you look where you see it coming up, you see that children play a big role in the transmission of this,” Osterholm said. “All the things we planned for children in schools with this virus really don’t apply anymore. We need to look at this issue all over again.”
Vaccinations are expected to help combat the B.1.1.7 variant. However, Osterholm said there is simply not enough time to just rely on vaccinations.
“We’re not going to have nearly enough (vaccine doses) in the next 6 to 8 weeks to get through this boom, and we’ll have to look at other ways to do it, just like every other country in the world. .1.1.7 boom had to do. ‘
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More young people are infected, hospitalized
The difference between previous trainings and another possible boom is that ‘the youngest individuals are now most affected,’ said dr. Leana Wen, told CNN on Sunday.
Older populations nationwide are predisposed to Covid-19 vaccinations. More than 54% of Americans 65 and older are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC, while more than 75% of the same age group received at least one dose of Covid-19.
But although the age group is now relatively well protected, Wen said, younger groups are still vulnerable as the B.1.1.7 variant spreads. The variant is more contagious and can cause serious illnesses, experts said. Research suggests that it can also be more deadly.
“We see in places like Michigan that the people who are now hospitalized by a large number are people in their thirties and forties,” Wen said. “And now we’re even seeing children become infected in greater numbers.”
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It’s not just Michigan.
“What we are seeing are bags of infection across the country, especially in younger people who have not yet been vaccinated, and also in children of school-going age,” said Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, told CBS’s “Face the Nation”. “on Sunday.
“If you look at what’s happening in Michigan, in Minnesota, in Massachusetts, for example, you see outbreaks in schools and infections in social groups that have not been exposed to the virus before.”
“The infection is changing its contours in terms of who is currently affected by it,” he added.
In Orange County, Florida, officials reported an increase in Covid-19 cases in the 18-25 age group late last month.
According to Dr. Raul Pino, director of the Florida Department of Health in Orange County, was a third of the Covid-19 hospitalizations in the province of people under 45 years of age.
New Jersey officials said last week that variants, including the B.1.1.7 strain, are contributing to an increase in cases and hospitalizations – including in younger age groups.
Between the first and last week of March, there was a 31% and 48% increase in the number of hospitalizations among the 20-29 and 40-49 age groups, State Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said on Wednesday.
Older residents have only seen one-digit percentage increases, she says.
How we can combat another increase in infections
Despite worrying warning signs, the US is not powerless, experts stressed.
The doubling of safety measures – weakening, social distance, avoiding crowds – coupled with rapid and effective vaccinations, could help curb another Covid-19 surge, Drs. Anthony Fauci said Saturday.
“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. ‘
Dr. Peter Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. on Sunday estimated that Americans “will have to hold on for another four to six weeks, and then we will be on the other side of it.”
“It seems like all the vaccines work just as well against this British, B.1.1.7 variant … so that’s good news,” he said. “I have a lot of confidence that we will be in a good place by summer.”
“But if you are not vaccinated, you should act as if you are very vulnerable to this virus. This is not a time to get sick,” Hotez added.
The CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia company, contributed to this report.
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