As coronavirus cases increase across the country, an infectious disease expert says the wave of outbreaks is “spiraling out of control,” as economies and businesses reopen and some states see standards of social distancing. they relax.
“There is an old adage in infectious diseases that a virus goes nowhere until it is eliminated everywhere,” Dr. Michael Saag, director of the Division of Infectious Diseases, School of Medicine, told Yahoo Finance. the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
“Why don’t we turn our attention to everyone who works together so that everyone wears a mask, stays home at least for the time being,” he said. “Sorry, I know it’s not fun. But this is getting out of control. “
The United States is rapidly approaching 3 million positive cases of coronavirus according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker COVID-19, as the average case count in the country reaches another record.
“I’m afraid the status quo is not going to reduce it from now on,” Saag said. “At least for the next eight weeks. So we probably have to do something different. “
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), warned last week that daily case counts could skyrocket to 100,000 coronavirus cases per day if steps were not taken to curb the virus.
“All of the southern states, and a few others, basically became Missouri. They are the ‘show me’ state. They didn’t think this was real, “said Saag. “Guess what. It’s very real. So we have to buckle up and take care of ourselves, or else we might see another duplication of cases of up to 100,000 as Dr. Fauci said.”
Saag said that even amid the increase in cases, there is a “window of opportunity” to control the coronavirus. The infectious disease expert said we should all behave as if we were “80 years old with underlying health conditions.” If we did, he explained, we would all “stay home, avoid large crowds, and wear a mask everywhere.”
“We all want to avoid another shelter in the home environment,” he said, “but if we don’t do it right, we will head there.”
Most concerning to Saag is the “overwhelming” of health care systems. “Hospitals are starting to fill up here in the south,” he said.
“We are all concerned about that,” he said. “And that’s a nightmare scenario: there will be no room at the end. And patients will not be able to enter with or without COVID. “
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