Pandemic Biden warns of "a winter of serious illness and death" for the unvaccinated
"We may be done with the virus, but the virus is not done with us."
These are the words of Brad Lander, the public auditor -or comptroller- of New York City shortly after testing positive for coronavirus, a phrase to some extent hackneyed during the pandemic, but which accurately reflects the stage that the United States is going through with respect to Covid.
There is a palpable feeling of having left this health crisis behind and, at the same time, fear of
the latent threat of a new wave of cases that will force us to go back.
The origin of that fear is the
subvariant of omicron, the BA.2.
Its contagion speed, 30% higher than the same omicron, has the health authorities on guard.
After the dramatic drop in positives in recent weeks, cases have increased again in various parts of the country and very noticeably in cities such as
Washington and New York, where some 1,500 cases are being registered per day, more than double what it does one month.
In the region that includes the tri-state area of New Jersey, Connecticut and New York,
BA.2 has become dominant with 84% of cases,
although without the virulence of omicron, which hit New York and in the rest of the country to exceed one million cases in one day and hospitals collapse again.
At the moment there has been neither the increase in the number of hospitalizations nor in the death toll, which could force the reinstatement of the restrictions of a few weeks ago.
In fact,
the level of incidence is moderate to mild in almost the entire country, with just under 30,000 cases per day and 564 deaths, 32% less than two weeks ago.
The number of people admitted to intensive care units with the virus is 2,206 throughout the country.
That's why the alarms haven't gone off yet.
The New York authorities do not rule out that it will reach a medium level of risk in the next two weeks as they prepare to increase the number of points for Covid tests
.
Even so, they are confident that they will not have to alter the planned roadmap and be able to return to pre-pandemic normality, with people returning to the offices.
According to epidemiologists, the combination of the State's high level of vaccination with those infected by omicron - it is estimated that 40% of New Yorkers have already passed it - should serve as important protection against BA.2.
politicians and actors
In Washington
the situation is similar.
Cases have doubled in a few days, coinciding with the removal of almost all protective measures against the pandemic.
The contagions have even reached the political sphere, with contagions that began to be known on Tuesday.
Three Democratic congressmen confirmed the positives, followed 24 hours later by Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Attorney General Merrick B. Garland.
On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined the list.
On Broadway, two stars like Sarah Jessica Parker and her husband, Matthew Broderick, canceled a function of
Plaza Suite
for being carriers of the virus, the same case as that of Daniel Craig, star of
Macbeth
, also on Broadway, affected by this new wave that started in Europe and that is helping to prolong the pandemic.
The BA.2 isn't the only one jumping from melee.
The XE subvariant has also caught the attention of the scientific community, with a contagion capacity 10% higher than that of BA.2, according to the World Health Organization
.
It was first detected in the UK on January 19 and is undergoing analysis to confirm its level of risk.
At the moment, only three cases have been detected in the US and none in California, according to the director of Public Health of Los Angeles County, Bárbara Ferrer.
Booster dose for autumn
Meanwhile, experts from the United States Food and Drug Administration have already begun work on their long-term vaccination strategy to deal with the coronavirus.
The plan is to know what kind of booster dose will be ready for the fall and
against which variants it will be effective, an announcement that they foresee will be ready for May or June.
Last week,
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gave the green light to a fourth dose of Pfizer or Moderna for people over 50 who have received the third at least four months before
.
"This is especially important for people over the age of 65 and over the age of 50 with underlying medical conditions that increase the risk of severe illness from Covid-19, as they are more likely to benefit from receiving an additional booster dose at this time. moment," said Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC.
According to data from New York,
new infections have predominantly occurred in those under 35 years of age
, who tend to be less likely to be hospitalized.
The prediction of Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, an epidemiologist at Columbia University, is that there will be a considerable increase in cases but not at the height of omicron.
The threat of the umpteenth variant since the pandemic began exists, but it is less scary.
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