The U.S. has now topped 88 million cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, though state and federal health departments say these numbers don’t paint an accurate picture of the spread of the coronavirus due to increased use of at-home testing. It’s all cause for concern, according to Montclair State University epidemiologist Stephanie Silvera, who says the omicron subvariants are on their way to becoming dominant in the country.
“Unfortunately again this year we have this perfect storm of these two new subvariants which are more contagious at the same time that most people have decided to really stop using any public health mitigation efforts, whether that’s masking or showing proof of vaccination,” Silvera said.
Referring to the prospect of COVID-19 booster shots in the fall, Silvera said, “The early data out of both Pfizer and Moderna seem to be indicating that even though they’re not as good at protecting you from BA.4 and BA.5, they’re still better than the previous booster at protecting you from infection and hopefully hospitalization and death,” said Silvera.
