The highly contagious Covid-19 variant first identified in the UK has now been reported in every state in the US, and experts are concerned spreading variants could send cases surging.
"America appears to be done with the pandemic," Dr. Michael Osterholm, director for the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said Monday night. "The virus is not done with us."
More than 15,000 cases of the B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant, which also appears to be more deadly, have been reported in the US. While the US races to get Americans vaccinated in time, many experts are asking the public to hold onto precautions for just a little while longer.
The good news, Osterholm said, is that existing vaccines are very effective against the variants. The bad news is that the US may not be able to administer them fast enough to avoid another surge.
"We are not going to have enough vaccines, the way we are going, into the arms of enough Americans over the course of the next six to 10 weeks with this surge that we are going to stop it," Osterholm told CNN's Erin Burnett. "It's just simply not going to happen."
And though the US is vaccinating nearly five times faster than the global average, with 40% of adults having received at least one shot, lower income countries with limited vaccine access could become a site for variants to spin out of control, Osterholm said.
Fortunately, the US has conditions that could help combat another surge: increased vaccination rates, a significant percentage of the population having already been infected and warming weather, Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the FDA Vaccines Advisory Committee, said Monday.
Source: CNN
