"We will see something that we have not yet seen in our country," said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota (USA) on Sunday. “Imagine, we are sitting with you on the beach right now, the temperature is 20 degrees, the sky is perfectly blue, a light breeze. But I see a Category 5 hurricane or even higher, four hundred and fifty miles offshore. And telling people to evacuate on this beautiful day will be difficult. But I tell you a hurricane is coming. "
Osterholm, who served on President Joe Biden's COVID-19 advisory board during the transition, also called for increased vaccination campaigns across the country, giving as many people as possible, especially the elderly, a single dose of a two-dose vaccine instead of providing fewer people. in two full doses. “The thing is, the surge that could happen with this new variant from England is going to happen in the next six to fourteen weeks. And if we see that it will happen, and my forty-five years of experience says that it will happen, we will see something that has not yet been seen in this country, ”said Osterholm.
“We still want to get two doses for each, but I think right now, before this surge, we need to get as many single doses as possible for as many people over sixty-five years old as possible in order to reduce serious illness and death. which will happen in the coming weeks. "
On Monday, White House coronavirus adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci stressed that Americans still need to get vaccinated, even if health experts dispute the options that arise. “And the reason is that viruses cannot mutate if they don't replicate. And if you stop their replication with widespread vaccination, you will not get mutations. "
Fauci warned last week that the number of new cases will eventually exceed the number of cases of the original strain of the virus in the United States. In particular, the UK mutant virus has already been identified in more than thirty states.
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