Vidya Sethuraman
India Post News Service
The number of coronavirus cases in the United States crossed the 11 million mark on Sunday (15 Nov.) reaching yet another grim milestone, as the third wave of COVID-19 infections surged across the country. The United States surpassed 11 million reported virus cases on Sunday, with one million of those tallied in just the last week. The daily average of new cases is up by 80 percent from two weeks ago.
More than 69,000 people were in American hospitals with Covid-19 on Saturday; more than 1,100 deaths are being reported each day on average. The U.S. is experiencing a massive resurgence of the COVID pandemic, with infection rates rising to 100,000 per day, and death rates at 240,000, the highest in the world.
Experts said this third wave was predictable, and could have been prevented. EMS arranged for a special briefing at which the nation’s top pandemic experts discussed what we can expect to see in this third wave, whether the US is adequately prepared, when we might expect to see a vaccine and the challenges of distribution to the most vulnerable populations.
Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health said newly confirmed infections in the U.S. were running at all-time highs of well over 100,000 per day. “We are entering the hardest time of the pandemic, “I think the next two or three months are going to be awful across the country”. Jha cautioned that even with the promising news on the vaccines being developed, it will be some time before things return to “normal.”
Dr. Nirav Shah, Adjunct Professor of Medicine in the Division of Primary Care and Population Health at Stanford University said “Even if we had 10 or 20 million people getting vaccinated over the next few months, until we get to 50, 60 percent of the American population vaccinated — and that’s at best case scenario April/May — I think we’re still some ways away from something that will be the new normal”.
Things will get back to normalcy only by 2022, added Dr.Shah. This will take months to distribute this vaccine, and in the meantime please wear the mask. Please maintain social distance. Avoid those large group gatherings. Even family groups.” added Dr.Shah.
“The virus is spreading in a largely uncontrolled fashion across the vast majority of the country” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious-disease expert at Vanderbilt University. People have COVID fatigue, covid annoyance really, and we will have to get them back understanding we can’t vaccinate everybody in a week and a half at the end of this year,”
Schaffner said. The storage and handling of the vaccine will be a key focus. If we had a vaccine, that were 70% effective, we in public health would be happy. But that would mean of every 10 people vaccinated, three would be of uncertain protection. And we don’t know who those three are. So even when we’re vaccinated, we’re still going to have to wear our masks, added Dr.William. His advice this Thanksgiving is this, fewer people, for shorter periods of time, spread out, wearing masks.
This is a long time deal. We’re all going to have to wear masks and do social distancing for a long time even after the vaccine starts to be used.
Thank You For Your Vote!
Sorry You have Already Voted!
