“I think the darkest days of the pandemic are yet to come, and I share that these new mutated viruses certainly pose a challenge due to the new variants,” said Dr. Osterholm said during a meeting of the Minnesota House Health Finance and Policy Committee.
Dr. Osterholm is the director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and a nationally recognized expert. He was also selected to serve on President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 task force.
He said that the new variants of the United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa have mutations that cause more transmission, and that they may also weaken antibody protection in people who have already had the virus or who have been vaccinated.
“It’s a story we all have in a long breath. We’re trying to understand what’s going on,” said Dr. Osterholm said.
He said there was growing concern about British tensions now spreading in the US
“It created great devastation in Europe where the only thing that basically brought it under control was the horrible word, but a complete exclusion that closed almost everything,” said Dr. Osterholm said.
This is the final 3 for England, at least 6 weeks at home
He said he believes the US is in the ‘early stages’ of experiencing something similar with the British variant.
“I think we have a real possibility of seeing a huge increase in cases in the early winter here in Minnesota and throughout the United States with this B117 strain. If we do, I’m convinced that it’s very “It’s worse than anything we’ve seen so far,” said Dr. Osterholm.
Dr. Osterholm told lawmakers it may be time to reconsider our vaccination strategy and work with a ‘first dose’ approach so that more people over the age of 65 can enjoy protection at least immediately. He said it should delay the second doses until this summer.
He said the idea was being looked at nationally. He believes the strategy will help lower the base of infections in the US
“I can tell you, we’re going to have another boom and if that happens, the lower we start, the better we’re going to be,” said Dr. Osterholm said.