Even though the election has ended and President-elect Joe Biden decided to set a committee with top healthcare experts to fight the Coronavirus pandemic, it is pretty clear that the road map ahead to beat the COVID-19 is going to be tough as cases are surging across the US and the country is going toward a dark winter.
Without any national plan in sight to navigate during the Coronavirus pandemic, the stage is almost set for a dangerous as well as deadly winter, accompanied by flu, said experts. Dr. Vin Gupta, a pulmonologist and an affiliate assistant professor at UW Medicine in Seattle said that there is not much "we can do to prevent what we think is going to be about 2,200 deaths a day by January 1".
Record High
The US continues to record daily high Coronavirus cases. On Thursday, November 5, the country reported 120,048 new cases, while the number of daily deaths reported topped 1,000 over several days in the previous week.
Dr. Kelly Henning, an epidemiologist who heads the Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Health program expressed her concern saying that this is a "very scary moment." She also added that Americans are currently feeling "some fatigue", but the virus is not, so. "It is continuing to circulate."
Reports said that 43 states are now reporting rising COVID-19 cases that include Colorado, where Governor Jared Polis said Friday, November 6 that Coronavirus infection-related hospitalizations in the state were the "highest they have ever been."
Dr. Ken Lyn-Kew, who is a critical care pulmonologist at National Jewish Health in Denver said that the Coronavirus-related hospitalization numbers are increasing and it is happening at a time when many doctors and healthcare workers are exhausted. "There is a lot of sadness and fatigue. There is burnout from dealing with this for months," said Lyn-Kew.
As per Dr. Tom Frieden, who is the former director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the president of Resolve to Save Lives, the rising COVID-19 cases are the reflection of "the number of connections that people are having, and contacts that people are having indoors" driving the spread of SARS-CoV-2 caused disease.
This is the reason why the healthcare experts are concerned about the Thanksgiving and upcoming holidays in the country that could increase the indoor gatherings—which will increase the risk of virus spread.
According to Lyn-Kew, when the US has the maximum infection case, "we need to sacrifice a little now to get back to what we used to be able to do in the future." He also warned that if people don't follow the right path, "a lot of our loved ones aren't going to be there when we get back together again."
Healthcare experts are continuously asking people to take their flu shots, as the US is entering the flu season that could overwhelm hospitals. Meanwhile, the hope which the leaving Trump administration showed about the widely available Coronavirus vaccine by the end of 2020, however, is growing dim –as many experts said it won't be ready.
