COVID numbers are continuing to decline, in cases and hospitalizations, mask mandates are coming to an end including Minneapolis and St. Paul’s last week, and many are looking forward to getting life back to a somewhat normal routine.
Now the CDC announced that most healthy American can start to ditch the masks, although the Federal mandate that they be worn on public transportation and airlines is still in effect.
Related
While many start to relax and put the pandemic behind us, Dr. Michael Osterholm says he is sleeping with one eye open, worried about new COVID variants.
Osterholm, who is the Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and one of the leading epidemiologists in the country, says even though the public appears done with COVID he is reminded of the situation a year ago.
“I had made the statements that I, even though the case numbers were dropping precipitously from that early January peak that we had in 2021, and the vaccines were now flowing, that some of the darkest days of the pandemic could still be ahead of us,” Osterholm told WCCO’s Vineeta Sawkar. “And that was because of the variants. We still have that challenge.”
Osterholm did say that the current state of COVID is very good across the country.
“The next three to four weeks case numbers will continue to drop,” he says. “And that's great news. But what I can't tell you is what'll happen three months from now, or five months from now, or six months from now.”
It would be another variant that is able to evade the vaccinations that concerns Osterholm. Much like Omicron was able to do, that could lead to another surge in cases and there’s no way to know the severity of those variants.
“Omicron as a variant has the ability to evade immune protection, meaning that because we've been vaccinated or that you've previously had infection, doesn't mean we're perfectly protected,” warns Dr. Osterholm. “Grant you, that it surely means you have a lower likelihood of having severe illness is a very good thing. So getting vaccinated is still really important, but we just don't know the future.”
Osterholm adds that while there is still plenty to watch from as an epidemiologist, this is a time to move forward for people and return life to a “new normal”.
“I think this is a time for both optimism, but also humility where we have to say, you know, what could happen in the months ahead,” asks Osterholm. “We're just not sure. And that doesn't mean we don't go ahead and try to, you know, live our lives in this new normal. But at the same time people like myself have to sleep with one eye open every night, watching for the variants.”
For those concerned about COVID still, and there are those that have health conditions who should still be cautious, Osterholm tells WCCO that you should immediately ditch the cloth mask and get an N95 or KN95.
Related
“Let me be really clear on one thing,” he says. “And this has been a confusing point. Most of the masking that we do in this country is useless. It does not do any good if you're using a cloth face covering or a surgical mask, these aerosols, these tiny, tiny particles that you breathe out much akin to smoke or to perfume where they just float in the air and you, you don't see them. If you have a face cloth covering on, just something putting in front of your face, it still leaks dramatically, and the virus will get right in. So one of the challenges we've had is educating the public that if you're going to do masking, which surely that's very helpful in protecting you, and if you're infected, reducing the risk of transmitting to others, you've got to wear high quality masking. If you're going to mask, mask with something that works and an N95 or KN95 is what's necessary.”
As we approach the finish line of this stage of the COVID pandemic, Osterholm brings up the point of emotional stress and says we don’t yet know the toll this has taken on us as a society.
“First of all, we have to acknowledge that it's very real, it's very important, and it has affected different people in different ways,” he tells the WCCO Morning News. “For example, if you yourself have lost loved ones, colleagues, friends, you're still in mourning. And some of us have lost multiple people.
“Second of all, if you're someone who had COVID and now you're experiencing long COVID, you've also have a tremendous emotional stress right now. Will I get better? What will happen to me over the weeks and months ahead? If you're someone who is immune suppressed, basically you don't have an intact immune system that should you get infected, it could be fatal, life threatening, even if you've had four doses of vaccine. That's an emotional stress.”
Osterholm also goes on to point out the toll this has taken on health care workers.
“They’ve literally been through a war themselves and posttraumatic stress syndrome right now,” he says. It's a challenge. We have to deal with it.
They need help. We're going to take literally years, I think, to fully realize the psychological impact that this virus has had.”
Would we be prepared if another variant causes significant issues? Osterholm says that could be the biggest challenge of them all.
“What if we do see a new variant in months ahead, and we're back into the soup again? The psychological impact that will have will be so challenging. It's like someone who has just struggled to complete a marathon being told two minutes after crossing the finish line, ‘oh, sorry, you gotta do another one’. I think that that's also a real aspect of what we have to deal with here. So there are no easy answers, but the most important thing is to recognize we do have a tremendous amount of emotional stress, mental health challenges with this virus. And it is just as potent in many cases, as the virus affecting us just at a physical level.”
Related
