World disease expert has warned against the spread of virus mutations in the US • "The game plan needs to be changed, as many doses as possible for people aged 65 and over"
World-renowned epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, a former member of President Joe Biden's advisory team, warns that the administration must wake up and make a sharp change when it comes to the Corona plague.
"This is a hurricane that is expected to reach us," Austerholm said, "now we need to change the game plan."
Vaccine distribution in the United States // Photo: Reuters
According to him, the various mutations of the virus do not leave much choice, or time, to reorganize, so already now the strategy should be fundamentally changed and given as many older people as possible vaccine doses and perhaps even younger ones, without keeping aside reserves for second doses.
Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, said he was concerned about the continued shuffling of vaccines and the logistical difficulties posed by drug companies and various U.S. states. Expected to significantly burden the health care system, it will soon become the dominant variant of the virus in the US.
It should be noted that despite the continued mortality of some 3,000 people daily in the United States and Austerholm's gloomy outlook for increased morbidity due to the spread of the mutations, it appears that infections in the United States have stabilized in recent weeks, partly in light of continued vaccination.
Since the beginning of January, the rate of new diagnoses has been less than 200,000 cases per day in the United States, but it seems that the full effect of the mutations has not yet been felt.
According to Ostholm, although "we should still strive to give everyone two servings, but at the moment, in light of the expectation of a surge of new cases, we should inject as many first courses as possible for those aged 65 and over, to reduce morbidity and mortality seen in the coming weeks."
Although the Biden administration has pledged to focus all possible efforts on vaccinating about 100 million people in the first three months of its presidency, the rate of immunization in the US is faltering. Of which about 5.4 million a second dose), but at least 20 million doses remained that were distributed across the U.S. and have not yet been injected at all, mainly because of bottlenecks within the 50 countries that failed to establish an effective deployment system to locate and bring in vaccine candidates.
In recent days, the South African mutation has also been identified in the US, showing greater signs of resistance to some vaccines, although drug companies believe they can adapt the doses, and perhaps even create a third dose, to overcome this partial resistance.