“For many people out there, this can feel like déjà vu,” U.S.
Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy admitted to “The View” host Joy Behar Monday when she asked him about a potential “viral storm” this winter.
While Murthy said he understands the frustration people feel after dealing with multiple waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said there is likely more to come. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, community transmission of the virus was high as of Wednesday and the highly contagious omicron variant accounted for more than 90 percent of cases in the country.
“The next few weeks are going to be tough for us,” Murthy said Monday. “You know, we’re already seeing record levels of cases, and we’re seeing hospitalizations starting to tick up,” straining hospital systems.
Recently, COVID-19 diagnoses in children have reached their highest levels since the start of the pandemic. According to CNN, children’s hospitals are also reporting a record amount of children in their care.
However, the surgeon general said there are some “glimmers of hope,” as we move through another winter battling the pandemic. Growing evidence from South Africa and the U.K. indicating omicron causes less severe infections than previous versions of the SARS CoV-2 virus, is one of those glimmers. Another glimmer of hope comes again from South Africa and the U.K., where omicron cases dropped as rapidly as they increased. Potential immunity for those who are exposed to the omicron variant and new oral pills for COVID-19 also make the future seem brighter.
“We’re still going to see a lot of people get sick,” Murthy cautioned.
He told CNN that it is difficult to predict when numbers may drop in the U.S.
Although omicron causes some breakthrough cases for those who are fully vaccinated and have booster shots, Murthy said vaccinations and booster shots are still the best ways to prevent infection, hospitalization and death.
“It's more important than ever,” that people get them, he said.
Murthy also addressed the CDC’s recent decision to shorten isolation guidelines for asymptomatic people. He said that the decision was based in part on science that indicates people with COVID-19 are most infectious in the first five days of becoming sick.
Furthermore, Murthy said the CDC is “working on issuing a clarification” regarding testing guidelines related to the isolation guidelines.
In response to some Republican politicians who argue that concerns about omicron are overblown, Murthy said it is important to continue to take COVID-19 seriously, to avoid making the virus a political football and to be kind to one another.
“In the last two years, we have lost more than 830,000 people to this virus,” and millions of people have been hospitalized, he said. “That is something to take seriously, that is not something to brush away.”
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