The United States should expect an increase in Covid cases due to the new BA.2 variant, warned Dr. Anthony Fauci. Fauci said though that while there will be a rise in cases, it may not lead to as severe of a surge in hospitalizations or in deaths.
Fauci’s prediction that cases will rise is based on studying what is happening in the U.K. and Europe, and from having conversations with health colleagues who are based there. There is currently a “blip” of cases in the United Kingdom. And the pandemic trajectory in the United States has tended to follow what has happened in the U.K. by approximately three weeks.
Based on that, Fauci said that there will be a rise, but like in the U.K., the intensive care bed usage will likely not go up. He said this means that the U.K.’s blip is not one of severe disease.
The BA.2 variant is the cousin to the very transmissible omicron and is even more transmissible than the original Omicron variant. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that BA.2 now represents about 23 percent of all cases across the U.S.
The BA.2 will likely overtake Omicron to become the most dominant variant in the United States, Fauci predicts, but it still remains unclear how much of a problem the new variant will be overall, and whether it will cause a big surge, a little surge, or somewhere in between.
The U.K. and the U.S. have both recently relaxed a lot of mitigation efforts in order to prevent Covid spread, such as mask mandates, and proof of vaccination. The relaxation in prevention efforts has meant that some of the strains are spreading more.
Fauci once again emphasized the need for Americans to get their vaccinations if they have no yet.
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