Skip to main content

New story in Health from Time: The Coronavirus Plus the Flu Could Equal a Devastating Fall and Winter, CDC Director Says



Summer has just begun, but health officials are already warning Americans that the fall and winter months ahead will likely be challenging. Once flu season begins, the U.S. will have to worry about not one, but two contagious viruses.

“The real risk is that we’re going to have two circulating respiratory pathogens at the same time,” said Dr. Robert Redfield, Director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) during a TIME 100 Talks discussion with senior health writer Alice Park. “We know flu by itself can cause substantial morbidity and mortality and hospital utilization,” especially for elderly people and those who have underlying health conditions. With the new coronavirus wreaking devastation in these groups and others, “this could be really a very, very difficult situation.”

Getting a flu vaccine is one way to help prevent influenza. But even though flu vaccines are safe and often quite effective, they aren’t very popular. “Historically, less than half of Americans get flu vaccines,” Redfield said. “This is the year that I’m asking the American public to seriously reconsider, because that decision may make available a hospital bed for somebody else that really needs it for COVID.”

So far this summer, as states have begun to reopen, Redfield said more than 100 counties in the U.S. are “what we consider [coronavirus] hot spots” and “experiencing higher transmission rates than we would like to see.” In response, he said, the CDC is sending teams to those areas and working with state and local health officials to understand how those cases are spreading and how best to contain them.

Redfield also denied that the CDC has been sidelined during the pandemic; in previous outbreaks, the CDC has taken a more visible role in holding press conferences to educate and answer questions from the public. “I’d say no,” Redfield said in response to whether the agency has been taking a backseat in guiding the country through the pandemic. “We have a seat at the table in the {White House Coronavirus] Task Force where I represent the CDC…and we are presenting those view and I can tell you those views are heard, and those views are respected.”

Right now, the tools Americans have been using for months—standing six feet apart, wearing face coverings, washing hands regularly—are still the best protections against contracting the virus that causes COVID-19. But by late 2020 or early 2021, that arsenal may realistically include one or more coronavirus vaccines, Redfield said.

That’s an incredibly quick timeline for a vaccine of this kind, and three months ago, Redfield would have called it “highly optimistic.” Now, though, “I think there’s a real probability that we’re going to accomplish that. No one can guarantee it, but the amount of progress that’s been made in recent weeks is substantial.”

This article is part of #TIME100Talks: Finding Hope, a special series featuring leaders across different fields encouraging action toward a better world. Want more? Sign up for access to more virtual events, including live conversations with influential newsmakers.

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

New story in Health from Time: COVID-19 Has Been ‘Apocalyptic’ for Public Transit. Will Congress Offer More Help?

While trying to get to work over the past few months, Brittany Williams, a Seattle home care worker, has often been passed by two or three buses before one stops to let her board. Buses in her area that once carried anywhere from about 50 to 100 passengers have been limited to between 12 and 18 to prevent overcrowding in response to coronavirus, and Williams’ commute, typically a half-hour ride, now takes more than double that time. Other Seattle transit riders have described budgeting as much as an extra hour per trip to account for the reduced capacity, eating into their time at work, school or with family. Even with the ridership limits in place, Williams, 34, doesn’t feel safe on public transit. Some passengers don’t wear face coverings, and bus drivers sometimes ignore capacity limits, she says. On one ride with her seven-year-old son, she decided to get off at a stop far from her home after a driver allowed a crowd of people to board. “It’s very trying. I’ll put...
Read more

New video by blogilates on YouTube

Day 8 - 14 | Blogilates 2020 Challenge You guys are CRUSHING the #2020Challenge so far! Idk about you but my abs are soooooore! This week, we're doing 20 reps of abs every day + 20 reps of another new exercise every day! If you need a little extra motivation, text my number (510-692-4556) and tell me all about it so we can come up with a solution together! This link also works: https://ift.tt/2Qjqw7G This week's moves are: Jan. 8th (starts 0:48) - 20 butterfly bridges + 20 criss cross (butt + abs) Jan. 9th (starts 2:43) - 20 oil riggers + 20 rollovers (arms + abs) Jan. 10th (starts 8:29) - 20 lunges + 20 leg outs (legs + abs) Jan. 11th (starts 11:03) - 20 walnut crushers + 20 single leg drops (back + abs) Jan. 12th (starts 13:41) - 20 sprinters + 20 crunches (obliques + abs) Jan. 13th (starts 16:27) - 20 squat jumps + 20 russian twists (cardio + abs) Jan. 14th (starts 18:57) - 20 plank jacks + 20 butt ups (total body + abs) Here is where I get all of my music! Epidemic Sound: ...
Read more

New story in Health from Time: 265 Million People Could Face Hunger in ‘Unprecedented’ Crisis, World Food Program Expert Warns

The world faces an “unprecedented” food crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused both severe job losses and major disruptions in food supply chains, the U.N. World Food Programme’s Chief Economist warns. “When you have these severe job losses, or you have big lockdowns, that means that those people become vulnerable,” Arif Husain tells TIME. An estimated 265 million people could go hungry in 2020, nearly double the 2019 figures, according to WFP’s projection in April. As millions around the world are losing their jobs or seeing their incomes cut , it’s increasingly difficult for them to afford food, Husain says. At the same time, lockdown measures and trade restrictions are making it harder to transport food from where it’s produced to where it’s needed, resulting in food going to waste in the field. Refugees and people in conflict zones like Yemen, Syria, and Burkina Faso and those already living hand-to-mouth prior to the coronavirus outbreak are parti...
Read more