Infectious Disease Expert Explains Why Next COVID-19 Wave In U.S. Is Inevitable

Infectious disease expert Michael Osterholm on Monday warned of the inevitability of another wave of coronavirus infections in the United States.

“While vaccination is important, it is obviously a critical part of our long-term game plan, we’re not going to have enough vaccine, at the way we’re going, into the arms of enough Americans over the course of the next six to 10 weeks, with this surge, that we’re going to stop it,” Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told CNN’s Erin Burnett.

“It’s just simply not going to happen,” he added.

Osterholm noted that some states, even where vaccination uptake has been high, are now experiencing rising daily new infections.

As GOP-led states lift pandemic restrictions, new infections nationwide have plateaued at around 65,000. It’s a stubborn detail that has troubled public health experts.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and top medical adviser of President Joe Biden, cautioned last week that now is “just not the time to pull back and declare premature victory.”

Osterholm on Sunday warned the forthcoming wave will more likely affect children, due to the prevalence of the more contagious B.1.1.7. variant.

“Unlike the previous strains of the virus, we didn’t see children under eighth grade get infected often, or they were not frequently very ill,” Osterholm said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Kids are playing a huge role in the transmission of this,” he added on Fox News.

Watch the CNN interview here: