Even as states move ahead with strategies to reopen their economies, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Tuesday that a second wave of the novel coronavirus will be much more alarming because it is most likely to coincide with the start of influenza season.
” There’s a possibility that the attack of the virus on our country next winter season will actually be a lot more tough than the one we simply went through,” CDC Director Robert Redfield stated in an interview with The Washington Post. “And when I have actually said this to others, they kind of put their head back, they do not comprehend what I imply.”
” We’re going to have the influenza epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time,” he said. Having 2 simultaneous breathing outbreaks would put unimaginable pressure on the health-care system, he stated. The first wave of covid-19, the illness brought on by the coronavirus, has actually currently killed more than 42,000 individuals across the nation. It has overwhelmed healthcare facilities and exposed gaping lacks in test kits, ventilators and protective equipment for health-care workers.
In a comprehensive interview, Redfield said federal and state officials need to use the coming months to get ready for what lies ahead. As stay-at-home orders are lifted, officials need to stress the ongoing value of social distancing. Officials likewise need to massively scale up their capability to recognize the infected through testing and discover everybody they engage with through contact tracing. Doing so prevents brand-new cases from becoming bigger break outs.
Inquired about the appropriateness of protests versus stay-at-home orders and contacts states to be “liberated” from limitations, Redfield said: “It’s not valuable.”
He stated he, in addition to members of the White House coronavirus job force, have been clear about the value of social distancing “and the huge effect that it’s had on this outbreak in our country.”
As part of the White Home standards released recently for a gradual resuming of the country, screening by CDC teams is currently underway in assisted living home in 4 states for asymptomatic cases. The four states are Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota and Tennessee.
The CDC has likewise drafted in-depth guidance for state and city governments on how they can ease mitigation efforts, moving from drastic constraints such as stay-at-home orders in a phased method to support a safe reopening. Redfield said that guidance will be “in the public domain soon.”
The CDC has about 500 personnel in the states dealing with a variety of public health problems, and most of them will be pivoting to the covid-19 reaction, Redfield stated. CDC also plans to work with at least another 650 workers as specialists to “considerably augment” public health personnel in the states and assist with contact tracing, to name a few jobs, he said.
But he acknowledged a much bigger workforce is needed. Redfield stated the agency is talking with state officials about the possibility of utilizing Census Bureau workers and Peace Corps and AmeriCorps volunteers to build “an alternative workforce.”
The Census Bureau had actually previously suspended field operations because of the pandemic and census personnel are currently found in every jurisdiction, Redfield said. If there is a contract to utilize census employees, they could be trained “to be part of a comprehensive contact tracing effort,” he said.
” These are all conversations that are going on to attempt to identify what is the optimal method to be utilized,” he said. “And it might be some mix of all 3.”
Previous CDC director Tom Frieden has estimated that as many as 300,000 contact tracers would be needed in the United States. The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials– which represents state health departments– estimate 100,000 more contact tracers are needed than are in the states now and call for $3.6 billion in emergency situation financing from Congress.
In the coming summer months, U.S. health authorities require to encourage Americans to plan ahead to the fall and the importance of getting influenza shots. That method, public health authorities can decrease the variety of individuals hospitalized from influenza. Getting a flu vaccination, Redfield said, “might allow there to be a health center bed available for your mom or grandmother that might get coronavirus.”
Thankfully, the arrival of the unique coronavirus in the United States came as the regular flu season was waning, he stated. By itself, a serious influenza season can strain health centers and clinics.
If the very first wave of the coronavirus break out and flu season had peaked at the exact same time, he said, “it might have been truly, really, actually, really challenging in terms of health capability.”
During the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic, the United States experienced its very first wave in the spring, followed by a 2nd, bigger wave in the fall and winter, during common “flu season” time for the country.
