Credit: Office of the Governor, YouTube
After weeks of infectious disease experts Michael Osterholm warned Americans of the “darkest days” of the upcoming pandemic, Gov. Tim Walz and the Minnesota Department of Education on Wednesday announced new guidelines that encourage schools to bring back as much as possible. as many students as possible in the classroom for personal instruction.
Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases and Research Policy at the University of Minnesota, who was a member of President Joe Biden’s advisory committee on coronavirus before his inauguration, sounded the alarm about what he thought would be a major increase in the disease in the next 14 weeks.
Osterholm’s appearance on Monday CBS this morning focused almost entirely on the threat B.1.1.7. which led to strict blockades in the United Kingdom.
“I think the next 14 weeks will be the worst of the pandemics. People don’t want to hear that,” Osterholm said. “But if we look at what these variants are doing, especially this one in the UK, and we see what it has done in Europe, we see what has been done in the Middle East, now we are starting to start that here in the United States. they’ll see it unfold. ”
Osterholm expects “very dark days” until the end of March, even predicting that schools that currently bring children back for personal training will have difficulty staying personal when the growth comes.
“I have a lot of respect for Dr. Osterholm, and he’s been a huge part of helping us understand,” Walz began when asked about Osterholm’s predictions. “This is not the position of the CDC. It’s not the models we use, IMHE, Mayo … we don’t necessarily see that. He’s not mistaken that variants are a potential threat.”
Walz said the Minnesota figures do not justify schools remaining in distance learning mode, and while acknowledging that “we are not out of the woods yet,” the situation in the state is so far that “we” are able to make this move. diminish the risk as close to zero as we can get. “
On Monday, there were less than 54,000 cases and 989 deaths nationwide, the lowest totals in October and November, respectively. In Minnesota, the numbers remained much lower than in October-November, when the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 exceeded 1,800.
The peak in Minnesota during the fall put great pressure on the capacity of the state hospital, forcing some patients to be moved around hospitals across the country due to limited open bed supplies and staff available to treat patients.
The Minnesota Department of Health is also concerned about variations
“We are concerned that we could see B117 (the UK version) becoming more widespread or even dominant in Minnesota and that this could lead to an increase in cases. That is why we are closely following the situation through our laboratory and epidemiological work, “an MDH spokesman told BMTN on Tuesday.
“However, we have two weapons against this threat: our continued use of preventive measures, such as wearing masks and physical distancing, and the continued launch of vaccines. It is so important for each of us to use these tools to help us we keep the virus, whatever the strain, under control. “
Osterholm is not the only one who believes the virus will grow in the coming weeks.
“We’re on a break because cases are declining. These new variants are more infectious,” said Dr. David Agus, a professor of medicine and engineering at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine. CBS this morning Tuesday. “We will have an increase in the number of cases in the next few weeks of these variants and it is certainly frightening the suffering it could cause.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations’ greatest expert on infectious diseases, also said that B.1.1.7. the variant could become the dominant strain in America by the end of March.