News 12’s Elizabeth Hashagen was joined by Dr. Daniel Griffin, the chief of
the division of infectious disease at ProHEALTH, to discuss a possible uptick
in COVID-19 cases this winter.
A new surge of COVID-19 cases is
expected to start hitting the U.S. around Thanksgiving, just as the holiday
season begins, according to the latest
projections from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the
University of Washington's School of Medicine
Griffin says it
is an ongoing pattern that case numbers go up in the colder months because
people are driven to be inside. He says he expects cases to go up after
Thanksgiving and at the start of January, after the holidays.
What are the
differences between the common cold, flu and COVID-19?
Griffin says in an unvaccinated
population, thousands of people die per day from COVID-19. In fully vaccinated
populations, there may be numbers that are more consistent to what is seen with
influenza, which is around 100 deaths per day. However, with influenza, 90% of
deaths are unvaccinated people.
Griffin also says testing has
gotten more accurate and advanced and can clearly distinguish between COVID-19,
influenza A and influenza B.
Griffin says there is still a
chunk of the population that is unvaccinated, but getting those who are willing
to get the shot will make a difference.
What does the
data say about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines for children?
Griffin says over
one 1 million children got vaccinated in the last week in the U.S. and
there have been no safety signals, or adverse events that call for further
investigation.
Griffin says one of the things health experts have noticed
with vaccines over decades of research is that if there is a safety signal, it
will be seen within eight weeks. It only takes this amount of time to see what
the long-term impacts could be.
Are there any studies on booster shots for pregnant women?
Griffin says a lot of pregnant women have gotten booster
shots and there have been no safety signals.
He says he wanted to wait to see the data before broadly
saying that all pregnant women should get booster shots. However, he emphasizes
that pregnant women are at high risk of hospitalization and even death from
COVID-19, so vaccines are highly recommended.
Griffin says COVID-19 is here to stay. Those who aren't
vaccinated and haven’t gotten the virus yet, it’s only a question of when they
will get COVID-19.