In an exclusive interview with Meet the Press, Michael Osterholm, Director, Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and a member of the Biden Transition Covid-19 Advisory Board, talks about vaccine distribution challenges and the threat of virus variants.”
- Osterholm believes the UK variant (B.1.1.7.) will become the “dominant strain” and we should be on the lookout for it. He compares the strain to a category 5 hurricane which is slowly approaching. Osterholm says the B.1.1.7. Strain causes “much more serious illness” and is likely to overwhelm our healthcare systembecause it has been shown (in the UK) to hospitalize around twice as many folks as earlier strains.
- Osterholm is “very concerned about the [strains] from South Africa and Brazil that may in fact lead to evasion of the immune protection from either natural disease or from vaccine.” This is scary, considering the fact that the vaccine was supposed to basically end the pandemic. Hopefully the vaccine DOES work on these strains, but we don’t know yet.
- We showed you back in November that Mr. Osterholm was already pushing for lockdowns even before this new variant took hold in the UK.
- The most telling quote of the entire interview: “What we have to do now is also anticipate this and understand that we’re going to have to change quickly. As fast as we’re opening restaurants, we’re likely going to be closing them in the near term.”
https://notthebee.com/article/here-we-go-biden-health-advisor-says-new-strain-of-coronavirus-could-lead-to-future-lockdowns/