White House recently announced the U.S. “Could potentially see 100 million Covid-19 infections this fall and winter,” according to CNN. This projection, released May 9, 2022 is an estimate according to various models. Today we examine what is behind the White House warning. Apparently the forecast assumes no additional resources or counter measures.
Models Behind the White House Warning
Well first of all the cautionary appears to assume there will be no dramatic new variants during the forecast period. Moreover, as Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House Covid-19 response coordinator confirms, it assumes the future is the same as the past. “Whether that happens or not is largely up to us as a country,” she told CNN Politics news channel.
White House bases its statement on the confluence of a variety of internal and external models, she explains. They indicate waning immunity and virus evolution will give rise to increasing infections “unless we get ahead of this thing”. We do know COVID cases are rising in United States. But could we really see 100 million Covid-19 infections this fall and winter?
Is This an “Extremely Important Warning?
CNN Politics chatted with Dr. Syra Madad, an epidemiologist at NYC Health and Hospitals to gauge her opinion. “I think it’s an extremely important warning,” she answered. “That everybody in the United States, whether you’re unvaccinated, or vaccinated and boosted should certainly take heed.
“Because we’ve been in this rodeo before and we know what to do,” Madad went on to explain. United States has the tools and resources to protect citizens. There are things we can do to protect ourselves from a severe outcomes, she insisted.
However, we do face pandemic fatigue Madad warned. We are out of the red zone but people are still dying every day. “We need to just continue to be cautious. Doing what we love in a safer manner, knowing that there’s much more virus in the community.”
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