The Director of the CDC, Robert Redfield in an interview with the Washington Post last week, said that the second wave of Coronavirus, a disease caused by the novel coronavirus, could be worse than the current one that shook the world. “There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will be more difficult than the one we just went through,” he said, because it would coincide with the annual flu epidemic, which killed 24,000 to 62,000 people last year alone and caused 18-26 million hospital visits.
Even though several hours later, during Trump’s daily coronavirus press briefing, Redfield was forced to take back his statement saying it is still going to be “more difficult and potentially more complicated, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be worse”.
As of today roughly 80,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus with a vast majority of them happening in the New York, New Jersey area. For a comparison, more than the 47,434 Americans were killed in combat during the Vietnam War. The total number of cases in the United States exceeded 1 million earlier this week. The 1st four months of this crisis will assuredly mean that when we get out of this, we will all be different people in a very different world.
The coronavirus pandemic may have slowed down in many parts of the country because of strict social distancing efforts but we would still hold off on planning any parties, vacations or trips to the office for a while at least. Experts say the virus won’t be a thing of the past anytime soon.
A second round of Covid-19 cases is ‘inevitable’ as soon as fall arrives, says the country’s top infectious disease doctor, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. As people increasingly try to resume regular life and more states ease or lift their stay-at-home orders, he says that he is ‘almost certain’ that the virus will come back, because it is so transmissible and globally spread. According to him Americans could be in for ‘a bad fall and a bad winter’, if the country is ill-prepared.
There are many aspects of the virus that remain unknown for scientists, but older viruses are offering some clues. People are usually infected by 4 common coronaviruses that were 1st identified in the mid-1960s, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and those tend to increase multifold in winter months.
Dr. Greg Poland, a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at the Mayo Clinic says that Covid-19 is likely to follow that pattern. If that happens, a second wave of the virus would return just in time for the start of flu season. The flu has been a constant threat to Americans and has been devastating in recent years. The CDC estimates that there were at least 39 million cases of the flu in the US and at least 24,000 deaths during the 2019-2020 seasons. He says that the combination of a second wave of Covid-19 with flu season could create ‘a lot of confusion’ because of their overlap in symptoms and it could also put a heavy strain on the health care system.
It appears that the novel coronavirus is likely to keep spreading for at least another 18 months. There are several possible scenarios for the course of the pandemic, but the worst of them is s second wave of infections just like the 1918 influenza pandemic, according to a report by the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
Mike Osterholm, CIDRAP Director, co-authored a report released recently that recommended the US prepare for a worst-case scenario. The report includes preparation guidelines for a second big wave of coronavirus infections in the fall and winter.
How to Prevent Second Wave of Coronavirus
According to health experts, the coming months would be a good time to prepare for a potential second outbreak of the virus.
- Hospitals and clinics should refurbish their stocks of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) and testing supplies. Order your PPE with zero hassles by clicking here - https://www.nobledentalsupplies.com/kleenguard-a70-chemical-spray-protective-yellow-coveralls-12cs-kimberly-clark
- People should try to get healthier if possible and continue using face masks for the time being. Gatherings should be kept to no more than 10 people at a time.
- As cities reopen, local officials should make plans to swiftly reissue stay-at-home orders or other strict social distancing measures in the future, in case it is needed.
- Health officials across the country must continue focusing on expanding coronavirus testing, contact tracing and treatment, said Dr. Helen Boucher, Chief of the Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases Division at Tufts University Medical Center. Improving the way health workers handle the coronavirus pandemic will be key, so the country is ‘as prepared as we can be’ when it’s time to face an outbreak of both the coronavirus and the flu. Check out all our discounted medical supplies at https://www.nobledentalsupplies.com/.
While most experts believe that people who have recovered from the virus will have some sort of immunity, Poland says it is unclear how strong that immunity might be, how long it might last and the accuracy of antibody tests is inconsistent. A lot of hope is being placed on the fact that there are no definitive answers yet, because there’s still a lot scientists don’t know.
Even though the worst is over, the months to come are not going to be ‘good’ but merely ‘less bad’. All in all, we’re probably living with this virus affecting our lives for one to two years, unless there is a breakthrough and really speedy production and distribution of a vaccine.
