The United States just reported more than 80,000 new cases of coronavirus on October 24. This is the highest recorded cases in a day since the pandemic first hit the country. It topped the previous highest reported cases in a day which was over 77,300 cases on July 16.
Experts are predicting that the worse is yet to come during the winter. According to the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, there may be over 2,000 Covid-19 deaths by December.
Dr. Adrian Burrowes shared that many may even get coronavirus and the flu at the same time, "which could be catastrophic to your immune system." Some experts think that getting the common cold may give trigger the immune system's defenses when facing another virus because of memory cells.
However, other doctors such as Seema Yasmin from Stanford health Communications said that when the immune system is compromised because of one's illness, it would make people vulnerable to getting an additional infection. Doctors are still urging the public to get the flu shot.
Dr. Jerome Adams shared that hospitalizations have increased greatly by 33% since the start of October. The number of deaths has decreased by nearly 85% due to multiple treatments and better patient management.
Face Mask Mandate
Dr. Anthony Fauci continues to remind Americans how important it is to wear a facemask. However, he said that a national mandate might not work. Instead, Governors and local levels of authority mandating the use of masks may be more effective.
He said that it may be challenging to enforce wearing face masks, especially since many have protested or still refuse to wear a face mask in public. Fauci continued, "[I] think that would be a great idea to have everybody do it uniformly."
With the winter months ahead, universal mask-wearing, physical distancing, and frequent hand washing remain important. "They sound very simple. But we're not uniformly doing that and that's one of the reasons we're seeing these surges," said Fauci.
Read Also: Some Forms of Common Cold May Give COVID-19 Immunity Lasting up to 17 Years, New Research Suggests
The Worst to Come Despite Vaccine Availability
Several vaccine companies have also promised doses by the end of the year such as Pfizer's vaccine candidate. More importantly, AstraZeneca announced that their vaccine trials were approved continuation.
Last month, their vaccine trials were on hold after a male volunteer developed a neurological condition. Dr. Jerome Adams said that the vaccine candidate will most likely "be the most scrutinized vaccine ever produced."
Despite possible available vaccines before 2021, the FDA will not approve a candidate that is not at least 50% effective. Dr. Francis Collins from the National Institutes of Health said that despite an available vaccine, many Americans may refuse to get immunized. "I've been talking so optimistically about how we are likely to have a vaccine by the end of the year, but if only 50% of Americans are interested in taking it, we're never going to get to that point of immunity across the population where Covid-19 goes away." he said.
Read Also: China Already Has Several Vaccine Candidates For Public Use
Check out more news and information on Coronavirus on Science Times.
