when all else fails turn the narrative to children...will we see through this hoax? probably not
Micahel Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, called the B.1.1.7 variant a “brand-new ballgame” because of how quickly it has spread among children, citing roughly 750 Minnesota schools that have reported the variant in just the last two weeks.
Osterholm suggested the U.S. may need to consider new lockdowns before school lets out this summer, saying vaccination alone won’t curb rising cases in the next six to eight weeks and “there isn’t a country in the world right now that has seen a big increase in this [variant] that is not locking down.”
“We’re going to have to reconsider what we’re doing,” Osterholm said, noting that the new variant is between 50% to 100% more infectious than previous strains and causes more severe illness about 55% of the time. “We really are in a category five hurricane status with regards to the rest of the world… This B.1.1.7 variant infects kids very readily, Unlike the previous strains of the virus, we didn’t see children under eighth grade get infected often, or they were not frequently very ill. They didn’t transmit to the rest of the community… B.1.1.7 turns that on its head.”
Micahel Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, called the B.1.1.7 variant a “brand-new ballgame” because of how quickly it has spread among children, citing roughly 750 Minnesota schools that have reported the variant in just the last two weeks.
Osterholm suggested the U.S. may need to consider new lockdowns before school lets out this summer, saying vaccination alone won’t curb rising cases in the next six to eight weeks and “there isn’t a country in the world right now that has seen a big increase in this [variant] that is not locking down.”
“We’re going to have to reconsider what we’re doing,” Osterholm said, noting that the new variant is between 50% to 100% more infectious than previous strains and causes more severe illness about 55% of the time. “We really are in a category five hurricane status with regards to the rest of the world… This B.1.1.7 variant infects kids very readily, Unlike the previous strains of the virus, we didn’t see children under eighth grade get infected often, or they were not frequently very ill. They didn’t transmit to the rest of the community… B.1.1.7 turns that on its head.”
