Milwaukee County health experts recently told WISN, a local Wisconsin news site, that the threat of COVID-19 may be worse now than it has ever been.
The health experts said this is due to the spread of coronavirus variants. Specifically, Milwaukee County officials said the variant discovered in the United Kingdom puts people at severe risk.
- “To be clear, for those who are not vaccinated this means that you are substantially more likely to become infected with COVID now through the same level of exposure you would have had in the fall. And also to be clear, if you are infected with COVID now you’re substantially more likely to get severely ill, to get hospitalized or to die,” Dr. Ben Weston, director of medical services in Milwaukee County, told WISN.
- “This is likely why we are seeing more severe disease in younger, unvaccinated people, and more young people being hospitalized,” he said.
U.K. variant now dominant in U.S.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a recent briefing with reporters that the the U.K. variant — or the B.1.1.7 variant, as some call it — is the dominant strain in the U.S. right now.
She said the variant has hit day care centers and youth sporting events in the U.S., as I wrote for the Deseret News.
- “Hospitals are seeing more and more younger adults — those in their 30s and 40s — admitted with severe disease,” Walensky said, according to NBC News.