A number of officials and experts are calling for more vaccinations in order to stop the coronavirus from spreading far and fast this winter.
The delta variant surge of the coronavirus has begun to taper off, and now questions have come up about what’s going to happen in the winter. Will the coronavirus surge again in the winter? Will the colder months produce another variant?
According to The New York Times, there has been a call for more vaccinations in order to stop a massive coronavirus surge in the winter. President Joe Biden has increased his efforts to vaccinate the country. And more companies are creating vaccine mandates to encourage their employees to get the jab.
“When I announced the first requirement, that encouraged businesses to feel they can come in and demand the same thing of their own employees,” Biden said. “More people are getting vaccinated, more lives are being saved.”
Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Stanford, told The New York Times that increased vaccination and natural immunity could stop another massive surge as we saw in winter 2020.
“Most of us don’t think we’re going to see the terrible surge we saw last winter,” she said. “That was horrific. I hope we never have to live through something like that again.”
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, told CNN that people’s lives will change this winter since everyone will have to deal with the flu and the coronavirus.
“I think the twin threats of this pathogen and the flu circulating every winter, as coronaviruses settle into a more seasonal pattern, is going to be too much for society to bear,” Gottlieb said. “I think we’re going to have to readjust how we live our lives.”
Gottlieb has said that the delta variant surge is likely the final massive surge of the coronavirus and that the “pandemic phase” of the coronavirus outbreak may be reaching its end.
Gottlieb told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” the pandemic might be nearing its end when the coronavirus vaccine is approved for children and when there’s an antiviral pill for anyone who gets infected with the coronavirus.
“I think those two things are going to be the bookend on the pandemic phase of this virus and we’re going to be entering the more endemic phase, when this becomes an omnipresent risk but don’t represent the extreme risk that it represents right now,” Gottlieb told CNBC.