Glimcher Associate Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, commented on factors that may be driving the switch, such as better access to vaccines in communities of color in 2022 and improved access to care. (The Boston Globe)Įarly in the pandemic, Black and Hispanic people were more likely than white people in Massachusetts to die from COVID, but that trend has now reversed. Here’s a selection of stories in which they offer comments and context: 2023įebruary 20: COVID is still killing people every day. We’ll be updating this article on a regular basis. Chan School of Public Health experts have been speaking to a variety of media outlets and writing articles about the pandemic. In the wake of an outbreak of coronavirus that began in China in 2019, Harvard T.H. "COVID continues to be a nasty virus.For the Harvard Chan community: Find the latest updates, guidance, useful information, and resources about Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) here. “Some judgment depending on your level of increased risk is really important now,” says Schaffner. This includes staying up to date with COVID-19 vaccines, testing if you have symptoms, staying home when sick, avoiding contact with sick people, wearing a mask, especially in crowded indoor spaces, and social distancing. In the meantime, people should assess their own risk on an individual basis and take precautions to protect themselves, the experts emphasize. While it may not match the BA.2.86 subvariant, it should be a good match for the Eris variant, which is currently dominant in the U.S. If you have yet to get the currently available booster, released last fall, then you should wait for the new shot, Azar advised. When the agency does make recommendations about who should get the booster this fall, the experts anticipate it will be for high-risk individuals - people over the age of 65, people with underlying heal conditions and the immunocompromised. The CDC has not yet released any firm guidance around booster doses for the fall. Food and Drug Administration, says Schaffner. Vaccine manufacturers are currently working on an updated COVID-19 booster, which will likely become available in mid to late September once it gets approved by the U.S.
We have vaccines, we have an antiviral that works very well." However, Azar pointed out that we are more prepared now for an increase in COVID cases than we've ever been: "We’re in a different place than we were a few years ago. “We’ve always had the expectation that there was going to be a seasonality to COVID, kind of similar to flu, that we’re going to see this ebb and flow,” she added.
“It’s really important to reinforce that the absolute number is still much, much lower than in various different peaks throughout the last couple of years," said Azar. There is no need to panic, the experts emphasize, and unlike past summer surges, this recent uptick remains relatively low. Is COVID on the rise again? Yes, but don't panic. "There are still plenty of people getting together in close proximity for prolonged periods of time to provide opportunities for highly contagious variants to spread," says Schaffner. A rebound in summer travel may also play a role. While summer is a time to enjoy the outdoors, many people are also seeking refuge from hot temperatures in the air conditioning indoors, he adds. "Just looking at the behavior of COVID in the past, there have been summer increases in each of the past three years, and we're seeing that now," says Schaffner, adding that this just seems to be the way the virus behaves.
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