While COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths are decreasing after months of spikes, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is still extremely concerned that the worst is yet to come. During an interview on Wednesday with JAMA, she discussed the biggest threat to society at the moment, issuing a severe warning to the country. Keep reading to find out what it is – and to ensure your health and the health of others, don’t miss out on these Clear signs that you’ve had the coronavirus.
Dr. Walensky explained that while it is no surprise that COVID-19 has mutated, it is in a direction that is not in our interest. “We have known for a long time that viruses mutate, and when they mutate, they have some advantage for the virus,” she explained. “If this advantage we think of is the increase in transmissibility, which many of them have shown, be it the increase in morbidity and mortality, the increase in virulence, that we are beginning to try and understand, or if it is because they can escape our therapy or our vaccines , our immunity. We are starting to see this. ”
However, he pointed out that as they appear “we still did not have the capacity to detect them, understand their impact and understand what we were going to do with the information, how we were going to prevent them from emerging”, which is proving problematic.
Dr. Walensky fears that, due to the increased transmissibility of these variants, they are likely to be dominant in the spring, resulting in another virus outbreak. And, as many are suffering from COVID fatigue, they are already letting their guard down.
“The CDC models projected that by March the variant B117 will probably be the dominant strain and that it is more transmissible”, he points out. “I worry that it is spring and we will all have enough – some states have already loosened their mask mandates. People are resting on the fact that the numbers are starting to get better. “
This can result in the resistance of some people to the vaccine. “At that time, I’m afraid life will look and feel a little better. And the motivation for those who do not, who may be hesitant about the vaccine, will be diminished. At some point there will be an inflection point, there will be more vaccine when we have people who want to take it. And at that point, we still need to increase vaccination. “
Ultimately, the pandemic’s appearance in terms of severity will depend on how people respond and follow the suggested fundamentals. “How it will depend on 330 million people: will they continue to wear the mask on it? And are they going to roll up their sleeves and get vaccinated with it? Because, although I’m really hopeful of what can happen in March and April, I really know it can go wrong so quickly. And we saw that in November. We saw this in December. We saw what could happen. “
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So follow Walensky’s fundamentals and help stop this wave, no matter where you live – use a face mask that fits perfectly and has two layers, don’t travel, get away socially, avoid large crowds, don’t go into the house with people you’re not sheltering (especially in bars), practice good hand hygiene, be vaccinated when available for you, and to protect your life and the lives of others, do not visit any of these 35 places you’re most likely to reach COVID.