Another wave of coronavirus is likely to hit the United States in the fall. Here’s why and what we can do to stop it.



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A second round of Covid-19 cases is “inevitable” when fall arrives, the country’s leading infectious disease doctor said, as people increasingly try to resume normal life and more states ease or lift their orders. stay at home.

“I am almost certain that it will return, because the virus is highly communicable and spreads worldwide,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci during a webinar by the Washington Economic Club earlier this week.

Americans could suffer “a bad fall and a bad winter” if the country is not prepared, said Fauci, who is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

This is what we know about the possibility of a second wave of the virus and the reasoning behind it.

Why in the fall?

There are many aspects of the virus that scientists are still unaware of, but older viruses offer some clues.

People generally become infected with four common coronaviruses that were first identified in the mid-1960s, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. USA And those tend to peak in the winter months.

Dr. Greg Poland, professor of medicine and infectious diseases at the Mayo Clinic, said that SARS-CoV-2, the technical name for the new coronavirus that causes Covid-19, is likely to follow that pattern.

If that happens, a second wave of the virus will return just in time for the start of the flu season. The flu has been a constant and devastating threat to Americans in recent years. The CDC estimates that there were at least 39 million cases of flu in the United States. USA And at least 24,000 deaths during the 2019-2020 season.
Poland, the director of the Mayo Clinic Vaccine Research Group, says that combining a second wave of Covid-19 with the flu season could create “a lot of confusion” due to overlapping symptoms and exert great pressure about the health care system. .
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It would not be the first pandemic to re-enter into force. In 2009, the United States experienced a wave of cases of the H1N1 flu virus, known as swine flu, in the spring. Months later, a second wave was reported in the fall and winter, according to the CDC.

“Often, not always … often the second wave of a pandemic is worse,” Poland said, adding that the coronavirus pandemic spread in the United States well into the flu season.

Another example is the 1918 flu pandemic, which killed 50 million people worldwide and some 675,000 Americans. At the time, there was a mild spring wave in the United States, but a deadly second wave hit the country in September.
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It appears that the new coronavirus is likely to continue to spread for at least another 18 months. There are several possible scenarios for the course of the pandemic, but the worst of them is a second wave of infections just like the 1918 influenza pandemic, according to a report by the University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.

“This will not stop until it infects 60 to 70 percent of people,” said Mike Osterholm, director of CIDRAP, in an interview with CNN.

“The idea that this is going to be done soon defies microbiology.”

Osterholm co-authored a CIDRAP report released Thursday recommending that the United States prepare for the worst-case scenario that includes a second big wave of coronavirus infections in the fall and winter.

What can be done about a second wave of infection?

Health experts say the next few months would be a good time to prepare for a possible second virus outbreak.

Hospitals and clinics must replenish their stock of personal protective equipment and test supplies. People should try to be healthier if possible, continue to wear face masks for now, and hold meetings for no more than 10 people, several experts told CNN.

As cities are reopened, local officials should make plans to quickly reissue stay-at-home orders or other strict measures of social distancing in the future if necessary, Poland said

Health officials across the country should continue to focus on expanding coronavirus testing, contact tracing and treatment, said Dr. Helen Boucher, chief of the division of geographic medicine and infectious diseases at the University of Columbia Medical Center. Tufts.

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“We hope to have more tools in our toolbox, maybe we will have some treatments for Covid-19 by then, maybe we will have better diagnoses,” said Boucher.

The Trump administration has estimated that a vaccine is missing in 12-18 months, although some leaders in the field say the timeline may be too fast.

Boucher says improving the way healthcare workers handle the coronavirus pandemic will be key, making the country “as prepared as we can be” when it comes time to face an outbreak of both coronavirus and flu.

While most experts believe that people who have recovered from the virus will have some form of immunity, Poland says it’s unclear how strong that immunity could be, how long it could last, and the accuracy of antibody tests is inconsistent.

“We are putting a lot of hope in that, but we have no answers yet,” Poland said. “This (virus) is only 16 weeks old, so there are a lot of things we don’t know yet.”

The experimental antiviral drug remdesivir was approved Friday by the United States Food and Drug Administration to treat hospitalized patients with severe Covid-19.
The drug, which is the first licensed treatment for Covid-19, It’s far from being a cure, according to a government-funded study, but patients who took it recovered faster than patients who didn’t.

“We have work to do. We are looking for other therapies. This trial will continue,” Dr. Andre Kalil, the lead investigation behind the clinical trial, told CNN’s Elizabeth Cohen earlier this week.

Has the virus gone elsewhere?

Yes.

In recent weeks, Singapore has seen a dramatic increase in coronavirus infections, with thousands of new cases linked to groups in foreign workers’ dormitories.

Singapore was initially praised for its response and its apparent ability to suppress infections in the first three months of the coronavirus pandemic. Then the number of cases exploded in April.

Since March 17, Singapore’s total cases have grown from 266 to more than 17,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
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To control the spread, the government has attempted to isolate the dorms, evaluate workers, and transfer symptomatic patients to quarantine facilities. It is a daunting task because workers live in overcrowded conditions that make social distancing almost impossible. The government also instituted what it calls a “circuit breaker,” a package of restrictions and new rules, combined with severe penalties.

The semi-autonomous Chinese city of Hong Kong had a relatively small number of cases when it saw an increase after it relaxed restrictions in March. Many cases were imported from abroad when Hong Kong residents who had left, either to work or study abroad, or to seek safety when the city seemed destined for a major outbreak earlier this year, returned, bringing the virus with them.
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