Category: Covid-19

Looking back to April 2020, I remember writing a column speculating on when the Covid-19 pandemic would end. At that time, most experts with whom I spoke anticipated an end to the virus in months.

And, of course, there was President Donald Thump ignorantly assuring us we would soon be hunting for colored eggs and eating chocolate rabbits because Covid-19 would vanish by Easter.

Cut to Gov. David Ige in his news conference Friday saying Covid-19 is going to with us a long time, maybe forever.

He said, We will have to live with Covid for the near term and for years and years to come.

The governor was explaining to news reporters why some pandemic restrictions would remain in place while he was relaxing others.

Epidemiologists expectation is that the current Covid-19 pandemic will eventually transform into an endemic phase, meaning it becomes a manageable disease no longer a deadly scourge with potential to overwhelm hospital systems and rack up huge body counts.

Medical experts say the move from a pandemic Covid to an endemic Covid will happen at different places at different times, depending on the availability of vaccines.

The message remains the same: the key to controlling Covid is widespread vaccination.

Dr. Scott Miscovich, in an interview, said it is difficult to pinpoint exactly when Covid could become a manageable endemic disease in Hawaii, but he said if vaccination rates rise to more than 90% with children getting vaccinated and wider acceptance of booster shots than he currently sees it might be possible by next summer.

But Miscovich says that forecast could change if Covid-19 evolves into a worse strain or transforms into an entirely new virus, requiring researchers to develop another vaccine.

The problem with setting a metric to signal the end of Covid danger is the virus is a constantly moving target and vaccination rates in many parts of the world continue to remain low.

He is confident Hawaii eventually will be able to move to an endemic phase because of the general willingness here to get vaccinated.

Miscovich is a national expert on Covid-19. His firm, Premier Medical Group Hawaii, has administered 5.5 million Covid tests in 21 states. He was the Covid-testing director for the U.S. teams in the Olympics.

Despite his optimistic view, Miscovich forecasts there will be yet another surge of Covid-19 coming from January to April, sparked after the Christmas holiday season in areas where vaccination rates continue to remain low, such as Wahiawa, the Waianae Coast and the southern part of Hawaii island.

In the same news conference Friday when the governor announced an easing of certain restrictions, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi also spoke of Covid as remaining here for a long time.

Blangiardi said, Covid is not going to go away. It is in our lives. It is here to stay.

A recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that most of the people it surveyed 79% also share the view that Covid will become a permanent part of our lives.

The survey respondents said they expect people in the U.S. will learn to live with Covid-19 like a seasonal flu, controlling it with annual vaccinations and medical treatments, but that some people still will get very sick and die each year.

About 15% of respondents said they were angry thinking about that outcome.

Only 14% in the Kaiser survey said they thought the coronavirus could be eliminated like polio.

Epidemiologist DeWolfe Miller said he expects Covid to continue circulating in the United States forever, but that eventually it will become a manageable threat with fewer people getting seriously ill and far fewer dying.

Miller is a professor emeritus at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii.

He quotes the wording his friend, the physician and epidemiologist Dr. Larry Brilliant, used for a title in a recent co-authored article in Foreign Affairs, The Forever Virus.

Miller said one reason Covid-19 cannot be eradicated is that it is animal borne. Brilliant writes it is already growing in more than a dozen animal species, including monkeys, cats and deer. Thats not to say the virus will be jumping automatically from the animals to humans, but to emphasize that certain animals are holding reservoirs of the virus that causes Covid-19.

We can talk about bringing it under control but nobody is talking about eradicating it, Miller said.

Miller said the key problem still is too many people in Hawaii and in the rest of the world remain unvaccinated but he anticipates a time when there is more immunity from vaccinations and from Covid exposure; then it will become routine for people to receive a Covid vaccine dose in the same injection with their annual flu shot. And if anyone gets sick, most infections will not be severe.

It will be no drama, just like flu shots already are in our lives today. That is about as good as it will get, he said.

I like the way epidemiologist Brilliant puts it: Rather than die out, the virus will likely ping-pong back and forth across the globe for years to come.

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Denby Fawcett: Covid-19 Can't Be Wiped Out But It Can Be Managed - Honolulu Civil Beat

Howard University Homecoming closed to alumni due to COVID-19 pandemic

Howard Universitys Homecoming festivities will be closed to alumni this year due to COVID-19 concerns.

WASHINGTON - Howard University's Homecoming festivities will be closed to alumni this year due to COVID-19 concerns.

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The University says in-person events will be closed to alumni unless specified. This year's Homecoming is called "Remember the Times" and will feature student-centered events, officials say, with limited in-person capacity.

The University will also livestream several events and will host special alumni events virtually.

"Howard is calling on students, alumni, faculty and staff to remember their first Homecoming experience, their first Homecoming football game and fond University experiences," said Howard University President Wayne A. I. Frederick in a statement. "Homecoming is an ideal opportunity to recommit ourselves to navigating the current social landscape and building toward Howard's future."

While this year's festivities will not feature large-scale events, students will be able to attend the Bison Madness pep rally, the Fashion Show, Greek Life Step Show, a modified Homecoming Concert, the annual Lavender (LGBTQ+) Reception, and Homecoming Day of Service events.

Individuals will be required to download the Bison SAFE app and complete the daily COVID-19 self-assessment prior to entering any Homecoming events held in-person.

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Howard University Homecoming closed to alumni due to COVID-19 pandemic - FOX 5 DC

COLUMBUS (WCMH) With flu season here and the winter months approaching, doctors want to make sure people are staying healthy. One of those ways is by distinguishing a patients symptoms.

Is it COVID-19, the flu, or is it respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)?

Dr. Joseph Gastaldo at OhioHealth said one thing to note is that with COVID-19, patients often suffer a loss of taste and smell. While not everyone experiences that symptom, it is the most telltale sign of coronavirus infection.

A symptom to watch with the flu is how your body is responding or reacting and for how long those symptoms are present.

Its essentially feeling like you got hit with a truck, Gastaldo said. You can have a high fever with the flu, and you can develop viral pneumonia with influenza.

The goal this time around is to keep hospital admissions low and keep as many as possible healthy.

Things people can do to help stay healthy are wearing a mask, socially distance, and get vaccinated.

Gastaldo reminds people that last year when mask mandates were in place, there was a minimum of reported flu and RSV cases, which he said shows those health measures are effective.

We all need to be cognizant of those who are not vaccinated, he says.

Even then, Gastaldo wants others to know that regardless of their vaccination status, its important to continue practicing these health measures.

Until we get to lower levels of community transmission, mask-wearing should be done by everybody regardless of their vaccination status, he said.

Though hes unsure just how many flu cases will be diagnosed this year, Gastaldo knows theyre coming. An increase in RSV cases is an example of those infections coming back.

RSV usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms that most people recover from after a week or two. However, it can cause severe symptoms for infants and older adults.

If youre still feeling unsure if youve been exposed to COVID-19, Gastaldo recommends calling your primary care physician.

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Is it COVID-19, the flu, or RSV? Doctor offers tips - NBC4 WCMH-TV

According to ESPNs Field Yates, the Cincinnati Bengals have placed offensive lineman Jackson Carman and running back Samaje Perine on the reserve/COVID-19 list after playing against the Green Bay Packers just one day ago. Carman, who started at right guard, played all 67 offensive snaps for the Bengals on Sunday while Perine played 41.

Theres no way to note how many Packers players might have been in contact with those two players without having access to the league-level tracking data, but the play-by-play of the Week 5 matchup does tell us which players tackled Perine, an imperfect measure of contact. Below are all the players who were credited with a tackle of Perine yesterday:

As long as a player is vaccinated and tests negative, the NFL states that the player does not have to isolate after close contact, as long as they do not show symptoms of COVID-19. Unvaccinated players, though, have to play by a different set of rules as the league states that unvaccinated players must isolate for five days after a high-risk close contact, even if they initially test negative for COVID-19 and dont display symptoms. If unvaccinated close contact players test negative for five days in a row, they are eligible to return to the team.

If an unvaccinated player tests positive for COVID-19, it will take them at least 10 days to return to the team. Vaccinated players who test positive for COVID-19 can return to the team after two negative tests that are at least 24 hours apart.

Hopefully, the Packers werent exposed to COVID-19 on the field on Sunday and all of the defenders who were in close contact with both Carman and Perine are healthy.

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Two Bengals placed on reserve/COVID-19 list after playing Sunday - Acme Packing Company

INDIANAPOLIS Data from the Indiana Department of Health shows a mostly steady decline in first and second doses of COVID-19 vaccinations.

Data from the Indiana Department of Health shows during the delta surge, first- and second-dose vaccinations peaked at a 7-day average of more than 12,000 per day in late August.

As of Friday, that number has dropped by half to a 7-day average of 6,080 first- and second-dose vaccinations a day.

Several Indiana vaccine providers say theyve seen the decline firsthand.

We are getting some that are coming in for their first and second dose, but the majority are the boosters, said Tracy Anderson, COVID-19 vaccine clinics manager for Community Health Network. I would say 80% at least are booster.

Anderson said her team is focused on reaching more students by running vaccine clinics at schools.

We wanted to make sure that population had the opportunity to get vaccinated, and its not always easy for those parents to get to clinics, she said.

Other providers are also working to make the vaccine available in more places.

I just got off a call with community outreach getting into some of our high-risk community settings and offering vaccines there, said Mary Kay Foster, special pathogens program manager for IU Health.

Foster said she believes health care providers need to educate patients about the potential consequences of COVID if theyre not vaccinated.

What that hospital bill is going to be like, she said. I dont think people realize how expensive the care for COVID truly is.

Data from the state health department shows 56.4% of eligible Hoosiers are fully vaccinated.

On Friday, Gov. Eric Holcomb acknowledged it will take time to convince some Hoosiers to get the shot.

Well continue to lean into making sure that those resources are readily accessible, easy to access, and we try to be as persuasive as we can, Holcomb said.

Health officials urge people who have questions about the vaccine to speak with their doctor.

The Indiana Department of Health has not posted data on booster shots to the vaccine dashboard yet, but officials hope to get make that information available soon, according to a spokesperson.

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Indiana sees decline in first and second doses of COVID-19 vaccinations - WANE

Boston MarathonRunners make their way to the finish line down Boylston Street during the 125th Boston Marathon. Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images

The Boston Athletic Association required all participants in the 2021 Boston Marathon to be either fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or test negative ahead of the race Monday and it appears the vast majority chose the first option.

BAA CEO Tom Grilk said Monday on WBZ that 93 percent of the runners Monday have been vaccinated, and almost all the others tested negative for COVID-19. According to Grilk, 0.3 percent of those tested had positive results, barring them from the race.

Grilks comments suggest roughly 1,400 of the 20,000-person field were not vaccinated, and that only a handful of participants were denied entry due to positive results (those disqualified for a positive COVID-19 test get their entry fee refunded).

According to the BAAs website, 95 percent of marathon volunteers have also been vaccinated, including 100 percent of medical volunteers.

The vaccination requirement was just one of several safety protocols implemented to ensure the first in-person Boston Marathon of the pandemic felt safe to participants, spectators, and local residents, according to Grilk. The field was also pared down by more than a third to 20,000 participants, and organizers instituted a rolling start to limit mingling and crowding.

Grilk said Monday that social distancing was their core COVID-19 mitigation focus.

It is safer, Grilk said, adding that it also looks safer.

We wanted people who live around here to have the sense that their welfare was as much in our minds as anybody elses, he said.

Stay up to date on all the latest news from Boston.com

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Boston Marathon organizer says 93 percent of participants are vaccinated against COVID-19 - Boston.com

Illustration: Elena Scotti (Photos: Shutterstock)

I sometimes think back to a phone call with a friend in the spring of 2020. Cases were down and pundits were optimistic: it seemed genuinely possible that, by mid-summer, all this would finally be over. These last two months, I said to my friendwill they seem, from summers vantage, like a weird dream? When, three months hence, the bars were thronged and the mask factories wound down, what would we do with the memory of spring? To which my friend said something like: who knows, hard to say. And then we talked about something else. And then the pandemic continued for another eighteen months. And now here we are, and its still the pandemic, and while things are infinitely better than they were a year ago, the fact is that were still wearing masks on the subway. So: when, exactly, can we definitely claim tove licked this thing? What metrics, what facts on the ground, will determine when we can fully return to normal? For this weeks Giz Asks, we reached out to a number of experts to find out.

Associate Professor, Epidemiology, University of Michigan

The uncertainty is really too large to put any kind of specific date on it, although its pretty clear that we still have a long way to go. In terms of how it endsas much as I would love to see us reach COVID zero, at this point I would expect were headed toward endemic, probably seasonal transmission, where most people have been vaccinated or have some degree of immunity due to previous infection and so infections tend to be less severe. This makes sticking with prevention strategies like masking and getting vaccinated (and expanding global vaccine access!) so important to reducing transmission and strain on healthcare systems, to minimize the toll of deaths and severe outcomes incurred on the way to Covid-19 becoming endemic.

When it comes to criteria, Id expect the pandemic to be thought of as over when cases, hospitalizations, and deaths due to Covid-19 are consistently down to relatively low, manageable levels. In terms of numbers, it will probably vary from country to country, but one might see something similar to what we would normally see from flu, which causes an estimated 12,000-61,000 deaths per year in the US (compared to the 375,000 deaths caused by COVID-19 in the US in 2020, and around 295,000 more so far in 2021).

Its important to underscore that different places will probably reach the end of the pandemic at different times (based on vaccine access/uptake, social distancing and other mitigation measures, etc.), and that even when the pandemic is over, we will still have to grapple with many of its longer term effectswhether thats Long Covid, mental health impacts, issues of misinformation and mistrust, or economic aftereffects.

Emergency Physician and Public Health Professor at George Washington University, and the author of Lifelines: A Doctors Journey in the Fight for Public Health

I dont think we, as a society, have defined what it would mean for the pandemic to be over. Will it be over when there are no more cases of Covid-19? Will it be over when the levels of hospitalization are such that we no longer worry about overwhelming our healthcare system? Will it be over when the number of deaths falls below a certain number? Regardless, I think most people would agree that we are nowhere near the threshold below which Covid-19, the worst public health crisis of our lifetimes, is no longer an urgent concern. I dont think were going to attain that level of stability any time soon. Certainly, its not going to happen while young children are still ineligible for the vaccine; nor while, around the world there are many, including the most vulnerable among us, who do not have access to the vaccine. At some point, we will have to reach a new understanding of what it might mean for this pandemic to reach a steady state, where its no longer top of mind in every one of our decisions. But were nowhere near that point now.

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Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security whose expertise is in infectious diseases, critical care (ICU) and emergency medicine

That pandemic will be over in a global sense when most nations of the world are able to treat Covid-19 like other respiratory viruses they deal with year in and year out. SARS-CoV2 is an efficiently spreading respiratory virus with a wide spectrum of symptoms that circulates in an animal hostit cannot be eliminated or eradicated. The goal is to remove its ability to cause widespread levels of severe disease, hospitalization, and death. This is best achieved by vaccinating those at highest risk for complications so cases are decoupled from hospitalizations but there will always be a baseline level of cases, deaths, and hospitalizations. Natural immunity post-infection also plays a significant role as well but is not the optimal way to tame the virus. The pandemic will eventually transition to a state of endemicity and the post-pandemic world will be one in which Covid-19 still exists but in a much more manageable setting.

Professor and Chair of Epidemiology at UC Berkeley

The honest answer is that no one can know for certain, partly because of the unknown future regarding variants that can escape vaccine-induced protection, and partly because it remains unclear when we will get a higher proportion of the worlds population vaccinated. But the future is most likely one in which SARS-CoV-2 regularly circulates in the human population and becomes more of an endemic infection/disease, with perhaps a seasonal pattern a la influenza. I think that scenario wont be with us for at least another 12-18 months.

Dean of the Milken Institute School of Public Health and Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health at George Washington University

The job of producing enough vaccine, and getting it into everybodys arms, while outpacing the virus ability to mutateits not a quick one. I think it will be at least a year until the pandemic ends, and thats being extremely optimistic. The inequities involved in vaccine production, and the degree of resistance were seeing to vaccination, means it could be a couple of years before this actually concludes.

Its humbling. In the first place, our knowledge of coronaviruses simply wasnt as good as it should have been. We did not predict how rapidly this could mutate. Meanwhile, our knowledge of human behavior was, as were learning, imperfect. We did not foresee the levels of miscommunication wed be faced with, nor the lack of scientific literacy. People know that some of the vaccines use mRNA but if you dont know enough about genetics or the science involved that can just end up being scary rather than reassuring. People start going off onto tangentswell, what does that do to you?without understanding how genetics work. Its understandable to me that people have those concerns or fears, but this is leading to a tremendous amount of vaccine hesitancy. That is too bad because the science tells us that mRNA doesnt alter the bodys DNA in any way.

Then of course theres the problem with developing a vaccine for children, which has turned out to be more daunting than I, as a pediatrician, ever thought it could be. The virus is still circulating among kids, and thats keeping this pandemic alive, because as long as kids are circulating the virus, were going to see more breakthrough infections in the adults around them.

Well know this pandemic is over when were no longer observing excessive rates of death due to Covid on a daily basisin the whole world, not just the US. The one thing we know is that this pandemic will not be over as long as Covid is circulating somewhere in the world. That doesnt mean we have to eliminate every case. What we might end up with is a situation wherethrough immunity of the population, or mutation, or (more likely) boththe virus ends up being more like the cold or the annual influenza, where we certainly have to pay attention to it, perhaps as a seasonal transmission every winter, and have to vaccinate people every year, but we no longer have these very high rates of mortality.

Do you have a question for Giz Asks? Email us at tipbox@gizmodo.com.

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When Will the Covid-19 Pandemic Be Over? - Gizmodo

The COVID-19 pandemic, now in its 19th month, has meant different things to different people. For some, its meant stress over new school and work regimes, or anxiety over the prospect of catching COVID-19 and dealing with the aftereffects of an infection. But for others, its created space and freedom to pursue new passions or make decisions that had been put off.

Our upended lives for better or for worse also likely influenced our perception of time.

In June 2020, we were part of a team of researchers who presented initial evidence that an individuals sense of time during the pandemic was closely related to their emotions.

People who reported feeling high levels of stress and nervousness in March and April 2020 also tended to feel that time was passing more slowly, but people who reported feeling high levels of happiness felt that time was passing more quickly. (Yes, believe it or not, there was a good chunk of people who enjoyed their time spent in lockdown.)

It turns out that even during a pandemic, time flies when youre having fun.

With a years worth of data, we were able to see how peoples views on the progress of the pandemic were related to their sense of time, their emotional states and whether they behaved in ways intended to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Time is a funny thing. On the one hand, its incredibly precise and consistent an objective measure. Each day on Earth lasts exactly 23.934 hours, the length of time it takes the Earth to rotate once along its axis.

On the other hand, how we feel or perceive time passing is neither consistent nor precise. Many people will probably agree that 23.934 hours seem to pass much faster on a Saturday than on a Monday.

Dr. Gable has spent the past decade exploring how two highly related concepts emotion and motivation play a large role.

Motivation is a part of emotion and can either be described as approach motivation or avoidance motivation. The former is characterized by the tendency to engage with others or pursue goals when we experience positive emotions, such as excitement and joy. The latter refers to the tendency to pull away from others when we experience negative emotions, such as sadness or fear.

Approach motivation is associated with time passing more rapidly, which ultimately results in spending more time engaged with something that makes us feel good.

Avoidance motivation is associated with time passing more slowly, which motivates us to escape from potentially harmful situations.

Under normal circumstances, these relationships help us effectively pursue our goals and maintain our safety. Consider how long youll spend absorbed in a good book and how quickly you try to escape from a threatening situation.

But what happens in extreme circumstances? Thanks to a grant from the National Science Foundation, we were able to investigate for the first year of the pandemic how peoples motivations and emotions altered their sense of time.

In April 2020, Dr. Gable and his team asked 1,000 Americans about their sense of time and emotional experiences over the previous month.

Almost 50% of these individuals reported that time seemed to be dragging by, which was strongly related to higher levels of stress and nervousness. These respondents also reported practicing social distancing more often. Roughly 25% of participants said time seemed to be flying by, which was associated with feeling happy and glad. The remaining 25% of participants felt no change in their sense of time.

A month later, we contacted the same people and asked the same questions. About 10% of those who had previously reported time passing slowly said it was moving more quickly. And more of them said they felt relaxed and calm.

With a full years worth of data, we were able to analyze the results across 12 months of the pandemic. (The analysis is still under peer review.) We found that individuals who reported being relaxed, happy and confident felt that time was passing more quickly.

In contrast, participants who reported strong feelings of fear, anxiety or anger or who felt that their lives were out of control perceived time passing slowly. This sensation of time moving sluggishly was also associated with greater worry about personally getting COVID-19, anxiety about whether a family member would become infected and concern about how the virus would affect personal finances.

We also found an interesting pattern of results related to participants beliefs about the dangers of COVID-19 and the ability to address the spread of the virus. Specifically, participants who felt the government could effectively control the pandemic and that there were effective treatments for COVID-19 felt time was passing more quickly. Participants who felt there was an insufficient amount of medical equipment to treat COVID-19 and felt the virus was highly lethal reported time passing more slowly.

Then theres the way time perception was connected to behavior.

Over the course of the pandemic, we found that when people were feeling time was moving by more quickly, they were more likely to wear a mask. Meanwhile, when people perceived time passing more slowly, they tended to avoid large gatherings.

Both limit the spread of the virus. So what might explain the likelihood of one behavior over the other?

Individuals wearing a mask are engaging in more approach-motivated behavior, as wearing a mask doesnt protect the wearer as much as it protects those in their vicinity. The more positive people felt, the more likely they were to wear a mask to protect others around them.

Those who avoid large gatherings are engaging in more self-protective, or avoidance-motivated behavior. It prevents you from getting the virus from other people, with fear and avoidance influencing the behavior.

In other words, if you see a light at the end of the tunnel through treatments and faith in the governments responses youre more likely to have an upbeat attitude and be more motivated to engage in behaviors that help others. If you feel utterly hopeless or sense foreboding doom, time creeps by. This seems to motivate the impulse to hunker down and protect yourself.

As our understanding and awareness of COVID-19 variants increases, so does our understanding of ourselves and how we behave. These findings may highlight the importance of maintaining good habits and finding hobbies that foster positive emotions. That way you wont be trapped in a cycle of despair, which is only compounded by the sense that time is creeping by.

Philip Gable, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Delaware and Chris Wendel, PhD Student in Psychology, University of Alabama

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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How your emotional response to the COVID-19 pandemic changed your behavior and your sense of time - KUT

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Oct 6 (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc has been accused of violating Colorado state law by failing to pay warehouse workers for time spent undergoing COVID-19 screenings before clocking in at work.

Jennifer Vincenzetti, who worked at two Amazon warehouses in Colorado Springs, filed a proposed class action in Colorado federal court on Tuesday claiming the company made workers wait in long lines to answer questions and have their temperatures checked.

Seattle-based Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The proposed class includes more than 10,000 people at five Colorado warehouses.

"Amazon appears fine making efforts to keep its workers safe, so long as the workers are the ones footing the bill," David Seligman of nonprofit Towards Justice, which brought the suit, said in a statement.

The complaint says that beginning in March 2020 Amazon required employees at Colorado warehouses to arrive early, wait in lines outside the facilities, and then answer questions and check their temperature once they were inside. The process generally took 20 to 60 minutes, according to the lawsuit.

That time is compensable under Colorado law, which says workers must be paid when they are required to be on their employer's premises or on duty, according to the suit.

Amazon has argued in a similar lawsuit in California federal court that because the screenings primarily benefit workers, they do not amount to compensable time under federal wage law.

Walmart has raised the same defense in a proposed class action in Arizona federal court claiming the retail giant's failure to pay employees for time spent in COVID screenings violated state law.

Reporting by Daniel Wiessner;Editing by Noeleen Walder

Dan Wiessner (@danwiessner) reports on labor and employment and immigration law, including litigation and policy making. He can be reached at daniel.wiessner@thomsonreuters.com.

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Amazon sued by warehouse workers over COVID-19 screening pay - Reuters

Top infectious diseases expertAnthony FauciAnthony FauciIt's time for Biden to eliminate one of Trump's worst immigration policies Foreign COVID misinformation helps fuel public health skepticism Watch live: White House COVID-19 response team holds briefing MORE said that he strongly suspects COVID-19 deaths will go down in the winter.

During an interview with Greta Van Susteren to be aired on Sunday, Fauci was asked if he expected another surge ofcoronavirus cases due to the delta variant or other variants such as mu this winter.

He responded thatit would depend on how well the United States is able to vaccinate the millions of Americans whohave not yetgotten a coronavirus shot.

Fortunately, right now, over the last few weeks, we've seen a turnaround in the slope in going down in both cases and hospitalizations. Deaths are still up, but it's really flattening, so it's a lagging indicator, Fauci told Van Susteren.

I strongly suspect that you're going to start seeing the deaths go down similar to the hospitalizations; how quickly they go down and how thoroughly they go down is going to depend a lot on a number of circumstances, which will be influenced by things like the colder weather, people doing things indoors, how well they go by the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] guidelines of, when you have a lot of infection in the community, even though you're vaccinated, when you are not home but outside congregate settings in the public, wearing masks, I think would be very prudent,he added.

Expertsare divided about whether this most recent COVID-19 surge of cases will be the last one.

Data from the CDC indicates that nationwide COVID-19 cases are generally starting to trend downward, but only about 56 percent of the countrys total population has been fully vaccinated. Colder weather, with more people being situated inside, could make it difficult to predict how well COVID-19 cases get tamped down later in the fall and upcoming winter given that that environment has allowed the virus to spread previously.

Leana Wen, public health professor at George Washington University and an emergency physician, told The Hillthat some states are still grappling with the latest delta wave.

I'm very concerned about people becoming complacent because they think that the delta wave is passing us, Wen said. We have seen this happen before, where there is a rise in the number of cases, then a decline, and then people let down their guard. And as a result, we plateau at a very high level of cases. That's unacceptable.

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Fauci says he 'strongly suspects' that COVID-19 deaths will go down in the winter | TheHill - The Hill