As the coronavirus or COVID-19 continues tp spread around the world in recent times, a top doctor in the US said that the country does not have to wait for a vaccine to get the pandemic under control. According to the US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams, "We can do it right now. The tools to stop this virus are already in our communities." He stated that it has been already done in places like New York.
"Our numbers continue to reflect the work of New Yorkers, who ultimately flattened the curve," the governor of New York Andrew Cuomo mentioned earlier this week. "As we head into the fall and flu season ahead, we need everyone to continue to wear masks, socially distance and wash their hands," he added.
It can sound like a very simple solution for a complex problem, but the health officials all over the nation stated that obeying the safety measures like the usage of masks can be almost as powerful as another lockdown. Researchers at the University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation predicted tat more than 115,000 lives can be save by January if 95 percent of the Americans wore masks. The measures if can be implemented might also result in a milder flu season this year, as per a study.
COVID-19 Threats in US
"If extensive community mitigation measures continue throughout the fall, influenza activity in the United States might remain low and the season might be blunted or delayed," according to a research that got published on Thursday in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, as reported by the CNN.
The US has registered over 6.6 million cases of the coronavirus till now after the start of the pandemic and at least 197,000 people have lost their lives. But what will happen in the future is pretty much uncertain. Few of the experts, however, claimed that a pretty bad situation may arise in the fall and winter. There are chances that the healthcare system of the US can get overwhelmed if there is a surge of both coronavirus and flu cases.
"This flu season is going to be the most important flu season we've had in decades," Adams stated adding that it is likely going to serve as a good indicator of how many people will get the vaccine. "It's an opportunity to prime the pump and have that conversation," he said.
There can be another scenario as predicted by Dr. Anthony Fauci that with the help of flu shots and other mitigation measures the US might not have to fight the double battle. "It is entirely possible that, despite the fear that we were going to have a double whammy, namely flu season superimposed upon a continuation of Covid-19, that may not be the case," Fauci said.
