WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — Over the past two weeks, the number of daily omicron variant cases in the United States jumped 65%, and the chief White House medical adviser says the U.S. is in for a rough winter as cases spread rapidly.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said it’s too early to start discussing a fourth shot of the vaccine. Instead, he’s hoping to get ahead of the curve with a more extensive testing campaign and two newly approved treatments for COVID-19 symptoms, which Fauci called game-changers.
However, the U.S. is now seeing a rapid increase of omicron variant infections, with thousands of new positive cases every day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
If there’s any silver lining, we’re getting more data specifically from Europe that confirms what many experts hypothesized: that omicron seems to be less severe and that its hospitalization rate is lower.
But Sunday, Fauci warned not to get complacent with that news; because there are so many more cases, that could mean hospitals still become overwhelmed, especially with the unvaccinated population in the U.S.
“If you have many, many, many more people with a less level of severity, that might kind of neutralize the positive effect of having less severity when you have so many more people,” Fauci said.
Meanwhile, the sports world is taking the warnings from the White House seriously.
The Fenway Bowl and Military Bowl have been canceled due to the pandemic as coronavirus outbreaks at the University of Virginia and Boston College forced them to call off their postseason plans. The Fenway Bowl, scheduled for Wednesday at the home of the Boston Red Sox, was to pit Virginia’s Cavaliers against Southern Methodist University Mustangs. The Military Bowl, scheduled for Monday at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland, between Boston College and East Carolina, was canceled because of positive COVID-19 tests among Boston College team members. It’s the second year in a row that the pandemic has spoiled bowl bids for Boston College and SMU.
These cancellations came after the NBA, NFL and NHL have postponed some games or sought out replacement players to fill the gaps as others miss games due to COVID-19.