Another US COVID Surge: Will It Happen?

The United States pandemic had seemed well under control until a week ago. Vaccinations were rolling out, cases were down and control measures holding. However, the recent relaxation in restrictions is coinciding with what could be the beginning of another US COVID surge. On top these concerns, the director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention went off script on March 29, 2021. When she confessed to a feeling of ‘impending doom’.

Is This Much Ado About Nothing: Where’s the Proof?

‘I’m going to reflect on the reoccurring feeling I have of impending doom,’ director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said. Then she continued ‘We have so much reason for hope, but right now I’m scared’.

Her U.S. public health agency had reported new COVID cases jumped 7% in the past week. And surges, as we know are hard to contain once they take off. That’s because of the time lag between infection and symptoms. What could be behind this potentially alarming development?

What’s Causing the Threat of Another U S COVID Surge

We now know that coronavirus spreads through unprotected contact between people. And this extends to breathing in infected air, that other people breathe out. Protection measures had brought the infection rate down, as we can see clearly from the above graph. The almost inescapable conclusion is the relaxed measures caused an uptick.

But perhaps this is just because there was an increase in testing and tracing, a statistical aberration perhaps? However, our second graph below shows the U.S. COVID death rate has risen similarly. This makes another US COVID surge much harder to deny. So what will happen next?

Two things are possible. We could do nothing, continue as before and hope for the best. Or we could redouble our efforts to protect ourselves, and others and see the surge subside. We are both the cause and the solution of the problem. What do you think we ought to do now …?