Fauci: Bad winter in store, US hospitals to fill with Omicron ill

Washington, Dec 19 (EFE).- The top US epidemiologist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned on Sunday that the country’s hospitals will fill up once again with Covid-19 patients in the coming two weeks due to the rapid spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant.

“The one thing that’s very clear – and there’s no doubt about this – is its extraordinary capability of spreading,” Fauci told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “It is just raging through the world.”

“If things look like they’re looking now, in the next week or two (US hospitals) are going to be very stressed with people because again, we have so many people in this country who are eligible to be vaccinated who have not yet been vaccinated,” Fauci said.

Fauci said that the most recently detected strain of the virus is spreading rapidly internationally and, although he admitted that doubts still exist within the scientific and medical communities about how severe the illness can be that it causes, he emphasized that the fact that it spreads so easily among humans makes it particularly dangerous.

“We are going to see breakthrough infections, there’s no doubt about that,” Fauci said, referring to infections among fully vaccinated people.

But he added that “The difference between a vaccinated and boosted person who has an infection and someone who has an infection who’s never been vaccinated, there’s a major difference with regard to the risk of severity.”

With an eye toward the Christmas holidays, the White House’s top disease expert and adviser recommended that everyone exercise caution during holiday gatherings, even people who have been fully vaccinated, and he noted that travelers must wear facemasks in airports and on aircraft.

He also recommended not attending holiday events where there may be people whose vaccine status is unknown.

EFE arc/eat/bp