States are easing social distancing rules, but it is “too early” to reverse Covid’s restrictions, warned Dr. Atul Gawande on CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith” program.
“We are currently at case levels that are still above the highest level of our last increase, so we didn’t even reach below the increase last summer,” said the surgeon and professor at Harvard’s School of Public Health TH Chan. “We continue to have 2,000 deaths a day, so this is not the level at which we are in good shape to just stabilize, we have to push it further down.”
The U.S. is seeing a 7-day average of 67,365 new daily cases in the U.S., according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins data, a 73% drop from a peak average of around 249,000 in mid-January. .
Gawande echoed concerns about the reopening shared by the director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Rochelle Walensky, who said she was still “deeply concerned” about the virus.
“Our recent declines appear to be stopping – stopping in more than 70,000 cases a day,” said Walensky during a press conference at the White House on Monday. “With these new statistics, I am really concerned by reports that more states are reversing the exact public health measures that we recommend to protect people at Covid-19.”
Gawande argued that the new variants of Covid circulating in the United States, including the latest variant circulating in New York, B.1.526, should be one more reason for Americans to remain vigilant when it comes to the coronavirus.
The CDC reports that almost 25.5 million Americans are fully vaccinated, about 8% of the country’s population, and with the delay in manufacturing, the demand for vaccines is high.
“I think the evidence is pretty solid that giving just one injection to people who reported being infected earlier would be a smart thing to do and would allow more vaccines to go to other people as well,” said Gawande about a temporary strategy to increase it further. the current offer.
Two new studies in Britain show that an injection of vaccine can offer “robust” protection for Covid survivors. The CDC, however, is debating the issue. Gawande told presenter Shepard Smith that he would like to see the CDC release its assessment as soon as possible.
The US vaccination effort is now armed with the injection of Johnson & Johnson, the third vaccine approved in its arsenal to fight Covid. The White House said Americans could start receiving the single injection vaccine as early as Tuesday.
“As for the expected supply of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, this week we will distribute 3.9 million doses,” said Jeffrey Zients, White House coronavirus response coordinator. “This is all of Johnson & Johnson’s current stock. We are launching these doses immediately to ensure that vaccines reach arms as quickly as possible.”