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With new reported cases of coronavirus increasing across the country, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning against Thanksgiving travel just a week before the holidays.
Still, nearly 1.2 million people passed through U.S. airports on Sunday, the highest number since the pandemic swept through the country in March. The surge in vacation travel in the United States has many health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warning that the level of infection could skyrocket even further.
“Clearly, in the next few weeks, we are going to have the same kinds of things. And maybe even two or three weeks later … we may see an increase upon a rise, ”he said.
The United States is seeing more than 160,000 new cases of COVID-19 per day. Like much of the United States, Europe and the United Kingdom saw a sharp resurgence in coronavirus infections this fall, and officials there have already imposed a second round of severe restrictions.
The suffering has been especially acute in the UK, where more than 57,000 people have died in Europe’s deadliest outbreak and the economy has plunged into its worst recession on record.
As the news worsens as infections rise, Moderna announced Monday that it plans to submit its data to regulators in the US, Europe and the UK for authorization of the emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine. The measure comes after the US pharmaceutical company demonstrated that its vaccine was more than 94% effective in the last stage of the study. The positive news about Moderna’s vaccine trials comes less than two weeks after Pfizer and its partner BioNTech announced success with their own coronavirus vaccine.
Despite the possibility of an upcoming vaccine, measures such as the use of masks and social distancing remain important in the fight against the spread of the pandemic.
As part of our regular series of conversations about the pandemic, The World’s Elana Gordon will take your questions and moderate a discussion with Megan Murray, an epidemiologist and infectious disease physician at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.
What questions do you have? Send an email to [email protected]
Stream the conversation live here on Tuesday, December 1 at 12pm ET.
This discussion is jointly presented by The Forum at Harvard’s TH Chan School of Public Health.
The AP contributed to this post.
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