Many countries have witnessed a remarkable increase in the number of Coronavirus infections since last March, with the outbreak of new strains of the highly contagious virus.
According to the Washington Post, there is a difference of opinion among the leading epidemiologists in the United States regarding the naming of this stage of the outbreak of the epidemic.
The newspaper indicates that experts have not yet decided whether America, and the countries that are experiencing a similar pace of the outbreak of the pandemic, are on the threshold of a fourth wave of the epidemic, or that the world is living in the last moments of the health crisis that has now entered its 14th month?
During an interview with the American "NBC" channel, Michael Osterholm, advisor to President John Biden on the task force tasked with fighting the Corona virus, said that the next two weeks will witness "the largest number of infections reported in the world since the beginning of the epidemic."
"As far as the United States is concerned, we are at the beginning of this wave," said Osterholm, who is also director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Studies at the University of Minnesota, adding that the worst is yet to come and that some US states have entered the fourth wave of the outbreak.
The number of HIV infections recorded in the state of Michigan reached 6,500 new infections per day during the past week, a figure close to the records recorded during the outbreak of the epidemic in the winter season, and the second largest number of infections with the new strain of the virus that appeared for the first time in Michigan was recorded in Michigan. Britain, according to CDC data.
a race!
On the other hand, there is another opinion expressed by former Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration Scott Gottlieb, who expected that the current rise in the number of cases of the epidemic will not reach the level of a real fourth wave of the deadly virus, inferred to this by the number of Americans who have been infected with the Corona virus and have built immunity against it so far and those Who have received the vaccine.
Gottlieb said in an interview with the American "CBS" channel, "I think that there is sufficient immunity among the people that you will not see a real fourth wave of infection" with the virus.
"What we are seeing are pockets of infection in the spread of infection throughout the country, especially among young people who have not received the vaccine, and among children who are of school age," he added.
The chief infectious disease expert at the US government, Anthony Fauci, also questioned the possibility of another wave of the virus outbreak, and said that vaccines were the missing factor during the first waves of the outbreak in the summer and winter seasons.
Fauci said during an interview with the American NPR channel that what is happening is a race between the possibility of a sudden increase in the frequency of the virus outbreak and the ability of the responsible authorities to vaccinate the largest possible number of people, expressing his hope that the vaccine will win the This race.