Despite the recent drop in national virus cases, Andy Slavitt, senior advisor to the White House COVID-19 response team, said on Monday that variant B.1.1.7 is likely to fuel the next wave of case growth as the country moves forward with vaccinations.
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“Unfortunately, we cannot predict the future and we know that this virus has been nothing but surprises for us since it arrived and I think there are more surprises to come,” said Slavitt to MSNBC. “But I don’t think we are close [to] out of the forest. I don’t expect that we can see smooth sailing from here, “he added, in part.
Slavitt’s comments followed shortly after a warning from Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, claiming that the next 14 weeks will be the worst of the pandemic.
Slavitt and Osterholm centered their projections around the variant strain first detected in the UK, 1,173 total cases now reported in 40 states in the U.S. and their impact in the U.S. in the coming weeks. The comments come after new findings by the British government, concluding that “infection” with variant B.1.1.7 “is likely to be associated with an increased risk of hospitalization and death compared to” other viruses.
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Based on several databases across the UK, scientists said the variant is probably 30% to 70% more deadly than the original strain. They had previously concluded that the variant was believed to be up to 70% more transmissible, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson posting last month that “it may also be associated with a higher degree of mortality”.
“I think the next 14 weeks will be the worst of the pandemic,” Osterholm told CBS ‘This Morning’ on Monday. “People don’t want to hear that, but if we look at what these variants are doing, especially this one from the UK, and see what they did in Europe, see what they did in the Middle East, now it’s starting to start here in the USA. Let’s see it happen. “
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Following the recently released guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on reopening schools, Osterholm predicted “major efforts” to open some schools, but a rapid increase in cases fueled by the variant will result in rapid closings in the next six to eight weeks.
More than 14 million people in the U.S. received two doses, and at least 52.9 million doses were administered, according to data collected by the CDC. More than 27.6 million people in the United States have been infected, with at least 485,000 lives lost to the new disease, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Alexandria Hein and David Aaro of Fox News contributed to this report.