Dr. Michael Osterholm March 9th:
I think we are trying to plant our petunias in a category 5 hurricane right now. I think the next 3-5 weeks we’re going to see major outbreaks in schools throughout the US. At 2.9 to 3 million vaccine doses a day over the next 6 to 15 weeks when this surge is likely to happen, is not going to take care of the problem at all.
March 26th:
Ayman Mohyeldin MSNBC: Has anything changed over the last 2 and a half weeks?
Osterholm: It sure has. 3 weeks ago today, 14 states were reporting increasing cases over a 7 day average. Two weeks ago that number was at 21. One week ago it was at 26. Today it’s at 33 states, of which 11 of those states have had more than 20% increase in cases just in the last week,
Just as I had indicated in that conversation before, what we’re seeing now is B117, this variant that was originally identified in the UK, which is anywhere from 50 to 100% more infectious than the older viruses and can cause more severe illness in well over 50% of the people it infects, has now become the prominent variant in this country.
We’re seeing major school outbreaks in a number of states. This is the first time we’ve seen kids, young kids ,really involved. We’re watching the rates of hospitalization actually go up quite dramatically in a number of states in the midwest and the northeast even in 20, 30 and 40 year olds. So, unfortunately, this is starting to unfold now.