US coronavirus: US could be fooled by improving Covid-19 numbers, experts say as tens of thousands of Americans are predicted to die by July

“I think we’re going to be fooled,” Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Philadelphia Children’s Hospital’s Vaccine Education Center, said Thursday. “I think what will happen is that you will see that as we enter the summer months, the numbers will drop, people will think wonderfully, we are good.”

He added: “And then, if we do not reach what I think will be at least 80% immunity of the population of natural infection or immunization, when winter comes, you will see an increase again.”

In the last seven days, the US has recorded an average of 56,240 new cases a day – the lowest since mid-October – and 1,437 deaths a day, the lowest since the country on November 19.

However, many states have begun to relax measures, including masked warrants. And because of the smaller number of masks and the larger number of people traveling with more transmissible variants, IHME increased its Covid-19 death toll until July 1 by another 22,000.

Overall, the IHME predicts nearly 600,000 deaths through Covid-19 by July 1, compared to the current number of approximately 530,000 deaths.

What the US is doing could have an impact on the trajectory of the pandemic, said Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in an interview with NBC Nightly News.

“I think March and April are just such important and critical times,” she said. “On the one hand, you have this hyper-transmissible virus that could lead to another wave after the spring breaks.

On the other hand, we are expanding vaccinations so quickly and what we really want to do is give those vaccines a chance to fight them and not let this virus grow again.

Christy Hylton, vice president of the church council, is preparing to put a paper heart into a United Church of Christ in Kenhorst, Pennsylvania, to represent every 1,000 deaths in Covid-19 in the state on March 3, 2021.

“We must be humble with this virus”

For those who are vaccinated, the CDC released new guidelines on Monday, maintaining travel recommendations for those who have been inoculated.

Some have questioned whether the guidelines are too strict.

“We have to be humble with this virus,” Walensky said in an interview with NBC Nightly News. “Every time we felt we had it under control, we had a huge increase.”

Once more people are vaccinated and the number of cases decreases, the CDC could revise its guidelines, Walensky said.

One year after much of the country was shut down by the virus, more than 98 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines were given in the United States, according to CDC data released Thursday.

About 1 in 10 people in the United States – about 33.9 million people – are completely vaccinated and almost 1 in 5 people – more than 64 million – have received a single dose.

In an address Thursday, President Joe Biden promised that vaccination programs would be open to all American adults by May 1, and by July 4, the United States could celebrate independence from the pandemic.

“If July 4th comes and your family has been vaccinated and your neighbors on the street have been vaccinated, yes, you can absolutely get together for a barbecue,” Dr. Jonathan Reiner told CNN’s Don Lemon on Thursday.

“Taking shots in the arm is not just a ticket to vaccination, it’s a ticket to get people back into offices, to open movie theaters, to fill stadiums, to get people back on planes,” he said.

Focus on “Long Covid”

But even if the spread of the virus is managed in the US in the coming months, the nation will continue to fight Covid-19 survivors who suffer the effects of the disease long after they become infected, said Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University School of Public Health. .
“We know that 525,000 of our American colleagues died, but we also know that tens of millions were infected, did not die, fortunately, and recovered. But I want to know what the long-term effects are for those individuals, “Jha told Erin Burnett on CNN.

“I worry that we really see the tip of the iceberg when we think of the long Covid, that there will be a lot of disabilities, a lot of suffering that will be with us for a long time,” Jha said. “I hope that’s not true. But that’s what I’m worried about and I’d like to understand that better.”

A recent study found that 30% of those with Covid-19 continue to have symptoms for up to nine months after the initial infection, and the National Institutes of Health has launched a $ 1 billion research effort to study the long-term effects on Covid-19. health.

Christopher Rios, Brandon Miller, Lauren Mascarenhas, Ryan Prior and Deidre McPhillips contributed to this report.

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