COVID-19 is the pandemic that keeps on giving. I have noted that based on the data, it is very likely a re-emergence will take place this fall, sometime between September and November. As a part of the build up to this, HHS Secretary Alex Azar noted in a report from CNN that the situation with COVID-19 is not getting better but far worse, and that the US is on the edge of another wave of the pandemic.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar warned Sunday that the “window is closing” for the United States to get the coronavirus pandemic under control, as confirmed cases are surging in a majority of the country and some states are dealing with record numbers of hospitalizations.
“Things are very different from two months ago… So it is a very different situation, but this is a very, very serious situation and the window is closing for us to take action and get this under control,” Azar told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”
He suggested that the US is better positioned to handled the pandemic than before, pointing to increased testing, contact tracing, hospital capacity, reserves of personal protective equipment, and advancement toward therapeutics and potential vaccines for the virus.
The top health official’s message differs from that of President Donald Trump, who seems ready to move on from the still-raging pandemic, and Vice President Mike Pence.
At a Friday press briefing by the White House’s coronavirus task force, the first in nearly two months, Pence declared that the US had “flattened the curve,” painting a rosy picture at odds with reality.
Thirty-six states are reporting a rise in positive coronavirus cases, and only two are reporting a decline in cases compared to last week.
On Friday, the US reported the highest number of new cases in a single day, with at least 40,173 new infections. The previous daily high was reported on Thursday.Several states, including Texas and Washington state, and localities have paused their reopening plans or reimposed some restrictions in hopes of curbing the spread of the virus.
Azar denied that reopening too quickly was tied to the rise in cases, but instead “inappropriate individual behavior” that has enabled the spread of the virus.
“That’s not so much about what the law says on the reopening as what our behaviors are within that,” he told Tapper.
He cautioned that if Americans “act irresponsibly, if we don’t socially distance, if we don’t use face coverings in settings where we can’t social distance, if we don’t practice appropriate personal hygiene, we’re going to see spread of disease.” (source)
For the sake of everyone’s health, one needs to take necessary precautions with this virus.
Things are not going to get better. They are going to get a lot worse, and when the next wave hits, it may cause significant disruptions to the economy even moreso that what has happened now.
Please get ready as much as possible. If one thought that 2020 has been interesting so far, one has yet to see the rest of the year and what it may bring.