A leading infectious disease expert predicted on Sunday that the most deadly British variant of Covid-19 will become the dominant strain of the virus in the U.S. and could hit the country like a hurricane.
The worrying prediction came when the total number of confirmed infections in the U.S. surpassed the 26 million mark, with the death toll steadily advancing toward the grim half million mark, after surpassing 440,000 on Sunday, by far the largest in world according to data collected by the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus research center.
Epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, who served on Joe Biden’s transition coronavirus advisory board after the Democratic victory in the 2020 election and is director of the infectious disease policy and research center at the University of Minnesota, warned America to prepare for the spread of the virus strain this spring.
“The increase that is likely to occur with this new England variant will happen in the next six to 14 weeks, Osterholm told NBC’s Meet the Press program on Sunday morning.
He urged the new administration to act more quickly with plans to vaccinate as many people in the US as possible, at least with their first dose, especially those over 65, in order to try to avoid the worst exacerbation by variants of the crisis.
“This hurricane is coming,” Osterholm told NBC.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that the new UK variant could be 30% more deadly than the original virus.
The strain was first identified in the United States in late December, but is believed to have been present in October.
Osterholm indicated that if US leaders fail to stay ahead of the most contagious and virulent strain in the UK, a disaster is occurring in the form of a new and rapid outbreak of infections, in a pandemic that has been out of control since it struck. the USA for over a year.
“If we see this happening … we will see something that we have not yet seen in this country … I see that Category 5 hurricane, 450 miles off the coast,” Osterholm told NBC.
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that, so far, nearly 50 million doses of vaccines have been distributed and about 30 million of them administered to patients in a U.S. population of more than 320 million.