After recording a sharp peak in cases last month, Coronavirus cases are now declining in the US, as per experts, though they are sceptical about this being the result of the vaccines being administered throughout the nation. However, experts believe that this trend is not likely to continue.
However, this decline is not expected to continue as new variants of the Coronavirus threaten to reverse the trend, as per Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the Director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Covid-19 Cases Falling But Not Due To Vaccines, Say Experts
She also remarked that although there is a decline in inpatient admissions and deaths, the overall cases remain high, almost twice the number of last summer’s peak.
Dr Sarita Shah, associate professor at Emory University Rollins School of Public Health said that the rise and fall in the cases seem to track along people’s movements and holidays and this trend has been prevalent since last year.
She added that this fall in the cases is likely due to a state of natural depression after the surge caused by the New Year holiday week with excessive gatherings and travels.
It is Dr Sarita’s Shah belief that the vaccines would only be able to contribute towards a decline when it starts to focus on the broad population. Currently, the vaccination programs are focusing on the most vulnerable populations.
During the New Year, people globally gathered for celebrations and travelling after almost a whole year being under lockdown.
Global economy was devastated, death counts rose and a record number of people went jobless in almost every part of the world.
There was hope by the end of 2020 after vaccination programs began in many countries and come Christmas, people went back to the ‘Old normal!
The Transportation Security Administration said that it had screened more than 1.9 million people a day before Christmas Eve, a record during the pandemic.
After exactly 14 days, the time Coronavirus symptoms begin to appear, the US started recording another hike in Covid cases.
The surge in Coronavirus cases during that period was imminent, with the country reporting more than 200,000 new cases per day.
Other experts like Dr Wafaa El-Sadr also weighed in. The fall in the cases couldn’t be attributed to the vaccines as less than a tenth of the US population has been vaccinated, said the professor of epidemiology and medicine at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
There has also been criticism over the Government’s vaccine distribution program, with much of the older population finding it hard to reach the centre’s without personal conveyance.
There is no way experts can base a logical trend for predicting the decline or rise in cases. There is no telling when the vaccination programs, which began in December 2020 would disrupt the rise in cases and start keeping the count low.
Most experts believe that the vaccines need to work before they can predict the future number of cases.
The Biden administration has scrambled into action, trying to secure maximum doses for the only two companies to be granted authorization for the vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna.
Johnson & Johnson is also seeking emergency authorization from The Food and Drug Administration.
Dr. Anthony Fauci last week said that there is growing evidence that the vaccines could prevent asymptomatic transmissions, though there is no definitive proof as of yet. There can still be a carrier with no symptoms, but still with enough virus to infect somebody else.
Asymptomatic cases have been the focal point of health experts since the virus peak last summer. More than half of the transmissions were attributed to asymptomatic individuals.