Infectious Disease Expert Warns Upcoming Coronavirus Rise Will Also Affect Younger People

Infectious disease expert Michael Osterholm warns Americans not to lower their guard even though coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to dwindle.

“Let me say we’re in the eye of the hurricane right now,” Osterholm told “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “It seems that things are going very well. We even see blue skies. ”

But Osterholm said the B.1.1.7, more infectious. a UK variant is rising below the surface. Responsible for 1 to 4 percent of U.S. cases a month ago, the variant has now grown to 30 and 40 percent of cases.

“And we’ve seen in Europe when we get to 50%, we’ll see cases increase,” said Osterholm, who is director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

Osterholm also said the new variant spread even among younger populations, just as schools in many areas are reopening, and referred to an outbreak in high school sports in his home state of Minnesota. last week.

“We will have difficult days ahead in the older population and in the younger population with this new variant virus,” he said.

Osterholm praised the pace of the country’s vaccination effort, but warned that the figures so far and the expected supply of vaccines in the coming weeks “will not really take care of solving the problem”.

“We still have a lot of high-risk people,” he said. “When that wave comes, they will be very vulnerable.”

See the full discussion in the clip above.