Infectious disease expert warns that the next coronavirus outbreak will also affect younger people

Infectious disease specialist Michael Osterholm is warning Americans not to let their guard down, even as coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to decline.

“Let me just say that we are in the eye of the storm right now,” said Osterholm at “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “It seems that things are going very well. We even see the blue sky. ”

But, Osterholm said that B.1.1.7 is more infectious. UK variant is popping up under the surface. Responsible for only 1 to 4 percent of cases in the U.S. a month ago, the variant has now grown to 30 to 40 percent of cases.

“And we saw in Europe, when we hit the 50 percent mark, you will see an increase in cases,” said Osterholm, who is director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

Osterholm also said that the new variant is spreading even among younger populations – just when schools in many areas are reopening – and referred to a sports surge in high schools in his home state of Minnesota last week.

“We will have some difficult days ahead of the older population and the younger population with this new variant of the virus,” he said.

Osterholm praised the pace of the country’s vaccination effort, but warned that the numbers so far and the vaccine supply expected in the coming weeks “will not really take care of the problem”.

“We still have a lot of high-risk people out there,” he said. “When this wave hits, they will be highly vulnerable.”

See the full discussion in the clip above.