White House predicts 100 MILLION COVID-19 infections in fall and winter 2022

Covid cases are rising again in the US, with senior officials warning that the virus is going nowhere anytime soon, with the latest estimates suggesting it could cause up to 100 million new infections in the final stages of 2022.

A senior Biden administration official said: “The CNN White House currently estimates there will be around 100 million virus infections in the coming fall and winter, a time of year when new cases are detected in both years of the pandemic.

By comparison, around 40 million cases of Covid-19 were reported in the United States between September 1 and February 28, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. While this is probably a serious understatement due to the highly contagious yet mild nature of the Omicron variant, it does mean the White House believes the number of cases could rise even higher this year than last year.

Experts have long thought that the next big wave of the virus would come during the cold fall and winter, and that America would recover as it did from the summer wave that hit in both 2020 and 2021. He gained substantial immunity to the virus following COVID-19 vaccines and previous infections during Omicron’s record-breaking winter peak.

But the number of cases will start to rise this spring, increasing 25% last week to 72,899 per day. However, during the Omicron era of the pandemic, deaths have not kept up with cases, and the country is currently recording 551 Covid deaths each day, according to the latest data from Hopkins.

White House estimates assume that no vaccine restraint measures such as multiple blockades or mask requirements have been implemented so far, no new variants that have dramatically changed the face of the pandemic, or that the administration will not receive new funding to protect some. running antivirus programs, CNN reports.

President Biden has urged Congress to approve more funding so the federal government can continue to purchase tests and treatments and continue other virus surveillance and prevention measures in the future. A massive $22.5 billion aid offer from the White House was pulled out of a spending package.

However, many in Congress and the general US population are poised to move beyond the pandemic. Instead, there is a fuss to use the funds elsewhere, not in Covid prevention.

As a result, some programs established by federal and state officials during the pandemic have been cancelled. Covid care in hospitals is no longer covered by the government. Free tests have also been canceled in many parts of the country.

The biggest cut was in data reporting, as most states moved from reporting cases at least four or five times a week, if not every day, to reporting numbers only once a week. BNO News reports that Washington DC has not reported any cases almost two weeksfrom Monday.

Experts have previously warned against such cuts, saying they will lead Americans to fly “blind” in the later stages of the pandemic.

“Testing has always been a cornerstone of our response to the pandemic. Without this surveillance data, we are blinded and will almost certainly repeat the mistakes of the past, Dr John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston University, told ABC in March.

“When we close test sites, we not only endanger people, their connections and communities, we also undermine critical public health infrastructure.”

The shrinkage in the reporting of Covid data in the USA also emerges as new threats arising from the pandemic. The BA 2.12.1 strain – itself underscoring the “hidden” BA.2 variant, which is also a sub-variant of Omicron – is gaining ground in the United States

The strain now accounts for 36.5 percent of sequential cases in the United States, according to the latest data released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

It specifically broke out in the New York and New Jersey area, accounting for 62 percent of cases, and has caused a sharp increase in cases in both states over the past two weeks.

The original version of BA.2 is dominant, accounting for 62 percent of cases, CDC reports. Omicron’s original BA.1 strain, which caused a huge spike just a few months ago, now accounts for only one percent of cases.

With the strain becoming predominant in New York and New Jersey, the BA 2.12.1 variant now accounts for 36.5 percent of sequential cases, CDC reports. The latent variant BA.2 remains dominant, accounting for 62% of total cases in the United States.

There are also growing concerns about BA.4 and BA.5 gaining ground in South Africa and triggering a new wave in the country. The country also became the first to be affected by the original Omicron release in late November.

Last month, the World Health Organization announced that it is officially monitoring two strains of the virus as potential concerns.

A previously published study from South Africa also found that the two variants may have the ability to evade immunity against the virus caused by a previous infection.

This could be of great concern to officials, as the massive spread of Omicron that has immunized most Americans against the virus during the winter months will no longer protect humans in the future, opening the door to another new big wave.

The CNN report did not specify whether the Biden administration believed the large increase in winter cases would be the result of BA.2, BA.4, BA.5, or some other species waiting for it to emerge.