Experts Warn 'Not To Get Too Cocky' As US Contemplates Life After Covid
- The Guardian, Feb. 20, 2022. Ed. - Cases, deaths, and hospitalizations have plummeted – but transmission remains high across the nation. -
As some US companies begin asking people to return to the office and governors lift mask mandates, talk has emerged of life after the Covid-19 pandemic in America. But infectious disease experts aren’t quite ready to declare that it’s safe for individuals, rather than governments and health officials, to determine whether precautions such as masking indoors are necessary. “I think it’s probably reasonable not to get too cocky at this point,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
“I welcome the decline in cases that we are seeing in the US and a number of other countries, and I think you can both celebrate the sunshine while also keeping an umbrella close by for the possibility that rain could occur.”
The numbers of Covid cases and hospitalizations in the United States have decreased by 67% and 38% over the last two weeks, according to data from the New York Times. Amid that decline, Democratic governors in Massachusetts, Illinois, New York, Rhode Island, California, Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey and Oregon have recently lifted at least some parts of the masking mandates. Calif. governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday announced a plan based on the idea that we are entering an endemic stage, meaning the virus is no longer a significant threat in some areas, rather than a pandemic, meaning a global outbreak.
That new approach includes a focus on countering misinformation and disinformation and mass testing to spot new variants and surges, according to the Associated Press.
US companies, most notably, Microsoft, have also announced plans to reopen their facilities and asked employees to return. And Amazon, where many people already worked in person, announced that it would not require fully vaccinated employees to wear masks, according to the Wall Street Journal. “While the world has changed, our dedication to the safety and wellbeing of our employees has remained constant,” Microsoft said in a blogpost about the reopening. “As we navigate this new phase of work, we’ll continue to take a data-driven approach to decision making that follows the guidance of public health authorities.”
But Justin Lessler, an epidemiology professor at the Univ. of North Carolina, says that while the numbers of Covid cases, deaths and hospitalizations have recently plummeted, the fact that the Omicron spike was so much higher than previous waves has misled people into thinking that they no longer need to wear masks or avoid mass gatherings...
- More, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/20/us-covid-coronavirus-mask-mandates-warning-experts
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