The White House on Wednesday insisted there is no need for a
lockdown because vaccines are widely available and appear to offer protection
against the worst consequences of the virus. But even if omicron proves milder
on the whole than delta, it may disarm some of the life-saving tools available
and put immune-compromised and elderly people at particular risk as it begins a
rapid assault on the United States.
“Our delta surge is ongoing and, in fact, accelerating. And
on top of that, we’re going to add an omicron surge,” said Dr. Jacob Lemieux,
who monitors variants for a research collaboration led by Harvard Medical
School.
“That’s alarming, because our hospitals are already filling
up. Staff are fatigued,” leaving limited capacity for a potential crush of
COVID-19 cases “from an omicron wave superimposed on a delta surge.”
Most likely, he and other experts said at a press briefing
Tuesday, an omicron surge is already under way in the United States, with the
latest mutant coronavirus outpacing the nation’s ability to track it.
Based on specimens collected last week, the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention said omicron accounted for about 3% of
genetically-sequenced coronaviruses nationally. Percentages vary by region,
with the highest – 13% – in the New York/New Jersey area.
But Harvard experts said these are likely underestimates
because omicron is moving so fast that surveillance attempts can’t keep up.
Globally, more than 75 countries have reported confirmed
cases of omicron. In the United States, 36 states have detected the variant.
Meanwhile, delta is surging in many places, with hot spots in New England and
the upper Midwest. The five states with the highest two-week rolling average of
cases per 100,000 people are New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Michigan, Minnesota
and Vermont.
Universities are abruptly closing classrooms during finals
week with infections multiplying at a fast rate. The NBA is postponing games
and the NFL had its worst two-day outbreak since the start of the pandemic,
with dozens of players infected.
Outside the U.S., the president of the European Union said
omicron will become the dominant variant in a month and declared that “once
again, this Christmas will be overshadowed by the pandemic.”
Scientists around the world are racing to understand
omicron, which has a large number of worrisome mutations in important regions
of its genetic structure that could affect how well it spreads from person to
person. How quickly the number of cases doubles, known as “doubling time,” can
give a preview of what the disease burden could be in a few weeks.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday that early
data suggests omicron is more transmissible than delta, with a doubling time of
about two days.
In Britain, where omicron cases are doubling every two to
three days, the variant is expected to soon replace delta as the dominant
strain in the country.
“The data out of the UK are quite alarming at this point,”
and foreshadow what’s to come in the United States, said Bronwyn MacInnis,
director of pathogen genomic surveillance at the Broad Institute of MIT and
Harvard. For example, she said, by Tuesday afternoon, omicron was already the
most common variant in London.
In many ways, omicron remains a mystery. Hints are emerging
from South Africa, where it was first reported, indicating it may cause less
severe disease than delta but be better at evading vaccines.
But, MacInnis warned: “There’s much more that we don’t know
about this variant than we do, including the severity.”
At the same time, Lemieux said, there seem to be fewer tools
to fight it. Some monoclonal antibody treatments don’t work as well against
omicron in lab tests, Lemieux said. Vaccines appear to offer less protection,
although CDC officials said booster shots strengthen that protection.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease
expert, said Wednesday there is no need, for now, for an omicron-specific
booster shot. The two-dose mRNA vaccines, the Pfizer and Moderna shots, still
appear to offer considerable protection against hospitalization from omicron,
Fauci said.
“If we didn’t have these tools, I would be telling you to be
really, really worried,” Fauci said.
Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus response
coordinator, said the U.S. has the tools to fight the virus, including omicron,
and “there is no need to lock down.” With vaccines available now for 95% of
Americans, “we know how to keep our kids in schools and our businesses open.
And we’re not going to shut down.”
Health officials called on Americans to get vaccinated, get
their booster shots, wear masks indoors and get tested before traveling and
before holiday gatherings.
“Hospital capacity is already at a breaking point in many
states because of severe cases of COVID-19,” Michael Fraser, CEO of the
Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, said in a statement.
Given the high level of transmission, MacInnis said there
will undoubtedly be severe cases.
“No matter how severely it affects healthy, fully-vaccinated
and boosted populations, it will hit the most vulnerable among us the hardest
still,” she said. “So the elderly, the immunocompromised, other vulnerable
populations will still be at greatest risk and still bear the brunt of this.” -AP