Dr. Michael Osterholm is the Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. He was also a member of Joe Biden’s COVID-19 Advisory Board during the period between Biden’s election as president and inauguration.
Osterholm previously supported sending children back to school. He said the virus was not much of a threat to children. Now, the situation has changed.
“Please understand, this variant B.1.1.7 is a brand new ball game,” said Osterholm at NBC’s Meet the Press. “It infects children very quickly. Unlike previous strains of the virus, we did not see children under the age of 8 being infected frequently or they were not very sick as they did not transmit to the rest of the community.”
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Variant B.1.1.7 was first identified in the United Kingdom. It is now reaching parts of the country.
In Minnesota, Osterholm said more than 740 schools reported cases of the variant. In Michigan, more young people are going to hospitals struggling with more severe symptoms than previously seen in children with COVID-19.
This is similar to what health officials have seen in other countries.
The British Medical Journal wrote two months ago that “evidence emerging from Israel and Italy (shows) that more children are being infected with new variants of COVID-19”.
Seeing this happen in his own backyard, Osterholm now questions his own past advice.
“Wherever you look and see this emerging, you will see that children are playing an important role in transmitting this,” said Osterholm. “All the things we had planned about children in schools with this virus are no longer applicable. We need to take a fresh look at this issue ”.
Vaccinations are expected to help combat variant B.1.1.7. However, Osterholm said simply that there is not enough time to rely on vaccines alone.
“We will not have enough (vaccine doses) in the next 6 to 8 weeks to overcome this increase and we will have to look for other ways to do this, just like every other country in the world that had a peak B.1.1.7 had to do . “
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Younger infected, hospitalized
The difference between previous outbreaks and another possible increase now is “the people most affected now are the youngest individuals,” emergency doctor Dr. Leana Wen told CNN on Sunday.
Older populations were prioritized across the country for Covid-19 vaccinations. More than 54% of Americans aged 65 and over have been fully vaccinated, according to the CDC, while more than 75% of that same age group have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
But while that age group is now relatively well protected, said Wen, younger groups are still vulnerable as variant B.1.1.7 circulates. The variant is more contagious and can cause more serious illnesses, experts said. Research suggests that it can also be more deadly.
“We are seeing in places like Michigan that the people who are now being hospitalized in large numbers are people in their 30s and 40s,” said Wen. “And now we are seeing even more children being infected as well.”
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It is not just Michigan.
“What we are seeing are pockets of infection across the country, particularly in younger people who have not been vaccinated, and also in school children,” said former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb, to the CBS’s “Face the Nation” program. ” on Sunday.
“If you look at what’s going on in Michigan, Minnesota, Massachusetts, for example, you will see outbreaks in schools and infections in social groups that have not been exposed to the virus before.”
“The infection is changing its shape in terms of who is being hit by it now,” he added.
In Orange County, Florida, authorities last month reported an increase in cases of Covid-19 in the 18 to 25 age group.
And a third of all county Covid-19 hospitalizations were for people under the age of 45, according to Dr. Raul Pino, director of the Florida Department of Health in Orange County.
New Jersey officials said last week that variants, including strain B.1.1.7, were contributing to an increase in cases and hospitalizations – including in younger age groups.
Between the first and the last week of March, there was an increase of 31% and 48% in the number of hospitalizations among the 20-29 and 40-49 age groups, respectively, said state health commissioner Judy Persichilli on Wednesday .
Meanwhile, older residents saw only a one-digit percentage increase, she added.
How can we contain another outbreak of infections
Despite the alarming warning signs, the United States is not powerless, experts stressed.
Reducing security measures – masking, social detachment, avoiding crowds – coupled with quick and efficient vaccinations, can help stem another Covid-19 outbreak, said Dr. Anthony Fauci on Saturday.
“We say this repeatedly and we need the local population, we need governors and mayors and others to be able to say, we are not yet out of this,” said Fauci.
“People say, ‘Well, you just want to confine us forever.’ No, this will not last forever, because every day that you receive four million, three million people vaccinated, you are getting closer and closer to the control ”.
Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. estimated on Sunday that Americans need to wait “another four to six weeks, and then we’ll be on the other side of it.”
“All vaccines seem to work so well against this UK variant B.1.1.7 … so it’s really good news,” he said. “I am very confident that we will be in a really good place in the summer.”
“But if you haven’t been vaccinated, you have to behave as if you are highly vulnerable to this virus, this is no time to be sick,” added Hotez.
The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia company, contributed to this report.
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