SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – For the first time in months, deaths from COVID-19 are expected to increase, according to a new report from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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National forecasts predicted Wednesday that 1,600 to 4,600 new COVID-19 deaths will likely be reported during the week ending May 28, bringing the projected total number of U.S. deaths to over 1 million.
Instead of focusing on the negatives, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control, said we should appreciate the progress we've made since last May.
"We have more vaccines and boosts. We have more testing available and we have more therapeutics available. Paxlovid has decreased the amount of severe disease and hospitalization by 88%, so we have access to many many more tools than we did a year ago," she explained.
As the pandemic wears on, it's been hit and miss when it comes to predicting what coronavirus is going to do. "When I came in and definitively said, 'we are going to be led by science as we think about our strategies and our guidances moving forward,' what people heard was, well then it will be black and white and obvious as to what to do," Walensky said.
But science is not always black and white, especially during a fast moving pandemic — which is why there's talk of another vaccination shot in the fall. As for comparing the virus to the flu, Walensky said COVID-19 is still much more of a danger for the general public and should not be taken lightly.
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