WASHINGTON – Michael Osterholm, a leading epidemiologist who advised President Joe Biden’s transition team on the coronavirus pandemic, said Sunday that the United States needs to “call an audible” with its vaccination program, prioritizing a run to give a single dose to as many people as possible before a likely increase in cases attributed to more contagious mutations of the virus.
Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told Meet the Press that he expects to see a new outbreak of infections “in the next six to 14 weeks”, thanks to the spread of new variants like the discovery for the first time in the UK. Looking at an increase in hospitalizations in the UK during the spread of this new variant, he predicted that another increase in the US will bring “something like we haven’t seen in this country yet”.
“We still want to receive two doses in all, but I think that now, before this increase, we need to take as much of a dose in as many people over 65 as possible, to reduce serious illnesses and deaths that will occur in the coming weeks”, said Osterholm.
At the moment, the two coronavirus vaccines approved for emergency use require two doses spaced out over a few weeks, but studies show that the vaccines provide significant protection after just one dose. A Johnson & Johnson vaccine candidate, which may be authorized in the coming weeks, requires only one dose.
Olsterholm compared the current situation to tracking a hurricane.
“The hurricane is coming. Because of this increase, we have to call an audible ”, he said.
“If we receive several first doses in people, particularly those 65 years of age or older, we can really do a lot to reduce the number of serious illnesses and deaths in this next big increase that is coming.”
The number of daily coronavirus cases has dropped in the past few days. After eclipsing 200,000 new cases in 15 out of 16 days in early January, the United States has reported less than 200,000 new cases per day since January 18, according to an analysis by NBC News. But new daily deaths have been nearly high in the past few days, eclipsing 3,600 in four of the past five days.
Health professionals in America have administered more than 30 million vaccines so far, according to the NBC News vaccination tracker.
President Joe Biden, even before his inauguration, announced the goal of vaccinating 100 million people in 100 days. But America has reached that pace in the last days of the Trump administration, and last week, Biden said he believed America could soon administer 1.5 million vaccines a day, a pace that Bloomberg said was met three times a week. last.
Still, vaccine distribution has at times been chaotic, with states reporting shortages and many Americans expressing frustration with availability in their communities. Public health officials are hopeful that new vaccines, like the one being developed by Johnson & Johnson, along with more vaccine production currently available, can help accelerate the distribution process.