Epidemiologist Michael Osterholm warns that the US is ‘at the beginning’ of the fourth COVID-19 boom.

A top epidemiologist advising President Joe Biden on the COVID-19 pandemic says it’s time for Americans to accept that the country is starting a fourth wave of coronavirus. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said that as far as the world is concerned ‘we are really in a category five hurricane status’ and there will be an increase in cases over the next few weeks around the world. And the reality will soon become clear to Americans. “As for the United States, we are just at the beginning of this boom,” Osterholm told NBC. Meet the press. “We haven’t even really started to see it yet.”

Previous increases have followed a well-known pattern across the country and it now seems to be repeating itself. “We are now, I think, in the cycle where the Upper Midwest is now beginning this fourth boom,” he said. When Michigan reported 8,400 new cases yesterday, it was a wake-up call for everyone, especially because of the increasing number of serious cases for people between 30 and 50.

Osterholm has been critical of the way people in the United States are ignoring the risks posed by the new, more contagious variant of the virus. The lack of concern is due, at least in part, to the way US leaders are not insisting on taking the threat seriously. “We are the only country in the world that is currently experiencing this increasing number of cases due to this variant and at the same time opening and not closing,” he said. Fox News Sunday. “The two are basically going to clash, and we’ll significantly increase the number of cases.” Osterholm realizes that this may not be what people want to hear, but the core of the virus is that it is going to do what it is going to do, and that we need to respond in some way. ‘Osterholm especially says that the new variant children are much more vulnerable to infections. “Please understand, this B.1.1.7 variant is a brand new ball game,” he said. “Here in Minnesota, we see the other aspect of this B.1.1.7 variant that hasn’t been talked about much yet, and that’s the fact that it infects children very easily.”

Others, however, are more optimistic that a fourth wave could be avoided. Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, dr. Scott Gottlieb, said that while young people in some areas are experiencing a new onset of infections, that does not mean there will be a fourth wave due to increasing vaccination. “You have about 200 million Americans with some immunity,” he told CBS. Face the Nation. “I think there’s enough immunity in the population that you are not going to see a real fourth wave of infection.”