"Another Covid Surge May Be Coming. Are We Ready for It?

“'We’ve been wearing rose-colored glasses instead of correcting our vision,' one scientist said.
Scarcely two months after the Omicron variant drove coronavirus case numbers to frightening heights in the United States, scientists and health officials are bracing for another swell in the pandemic and, with it, the first major test of the country’s strategy of living with the virus while limiting its impact.

"Fewer than half of Americans who have received primary vaccine doses have taken booster shots, putting the United States in a more precarious position. Even though new case numbers are so low, nearly 1,200 Americans on average are dying each day from Covid — a rate far higher than in Western Europe, where older people tend to have received vaccines and boosters in higher numbers.

“'I expect we’ll see a wave in the U.S. sooner than what most people expect,' said Kristian Andersen, a virologist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif. He said that it could come as soon as April, or perhaps later in the spring or the early summer. And given that some cases inevitably turn more serious, Dr. Andersen said, 'yes, such a wave would be accompanied by rising hospitalizations and deaths.'

"The federal government is warning that pandemic funds are drying up. Senate Republicans have said that they will not approve $15 billion in new coronavirus aid. With the aid package stymied for now, federal officials said that they would need to start cutting shipments of monoclonal antibody treatments to states next week. The government has secured 20 million antiviral pills, but orders for more are on hold. And by June, officials said, the federal government’s efforts to ensure that companies keep producing enough tests will run out of money, imperiling capacity.There is not enough money to guarantee sufficient purchases of variant-specific booster shots if they are needed, federal officials said." New York Times

So here we are on the last day of Winter: exactly two years after I first started this photo blog. COVID case numbers are currently down from the most recent COVID surge.
Yet 1200 Americans are still dying each day from COVID.

Two years ago, during the entire week of March 16 to 22, there were only 491 US deaths ; even without any vaccines, treatments, or the benefits of masking that have since helped curb the disastrous surges to follow. That’s a big difference from the current 8,4000 weekly American COVID deaths that now seem to be "acceptable."

Hopefully, there will not be another major surge (with increased hospitalizations and deaths).
Even today, COVID is still taking far too many lives. Unfortunately, it seems like if there is another surge, America will not be as prepared as it should be. Due to vaccination hesitancy, the US is much more vulnerable than Europe where a new COVID surge is now occurring.

However, only time will tell how bad things will get for the US. Just like things were with the pandemic 2 years ago today, we will have to now wait and see what the future will bring… History says that COVID seems to stay ahead in mankind's War against the deadly virus. The US seems to lag 3 to 4 weeks behind what is happening in Europe.