The Story:
As winter approaches, people live in closer quarters with one another, and breathe more indoor air. Also, the holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas bring families together in large groups. At this time, authorities are concerned that the United States is facing yet another wave of Covid-19 infections.
Significance:
The Biden administration’s chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci observed on a recent appearance on the cable network CNBC that there have been Covid upticks in the Midwest and Northeast of late.
Fauci blamed this on the continued large portion of the U.S. population that has not been vaccinated: roughly 60 million vaccine-eligible individuals across the country.
The great public health goal remains population (or “herd”) immunity. In part with that end in view, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has expanded access to Pfizer’s two-dose vaccine to children ages 5 to 11 earlier this month.
In Pill Form:
The fluctuations of Covid-19 are regionally specific. Over the summer of 2021, cases exploded across the South and upper Northwest, often outstripping the infection and death figures from the earlier peaks of January.
The states that are sustaining the current upward move, in the Midwest and Northeast, are generally still posting numbers below earlier peaks, allowing hope in some quarters that this may be a false alarm — a final gasp of the fourth wave rather than a fifth wave.
