According to experts, the United States is preparing for the “dangerous” flu season with high levels of Covid infection.World news

The United States is entering a “dangerous” cold and flu season with high levels of Covid-19 infection.

Experts said cool weather would drive people indoors and help spread the virus, just as pandemic malaise begins.

Covid-19 infection is still high It fills many hospitals in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain areas, with a slight increase in the northeast. Experts say that if current trends are maintained, the death toll could reach 400,000 before the beginning of the year. To date, more than 215,000 people have died from the coronavirus in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University. Coronavirus Research Center..

Stephen Woolf, a professor of family medicine and artificial health at Virginia Commonwealth University, said:

“There are no big rallies, no big games at soccer stadiums, no big politics, and many other things that society and politicians are resisting,” he said.

Instead, states such as South Dakota, Montana, Wisconsin, and Wyoming all have higher incidences of new cases. North Dakota has seen the worst death toll since the pandemic began in the United States in early 2020. This trend began in mid-September and continues to worsen.

In deep south, such as Tennessee, transmission is already on the rise. There is a small but significant increase in New York and New Jersey.

“I see it more like a wave [that] People are not vigilant in terms of very strict social distance regulations, “said Howard Markel, a pandemic historian and health professor at the University of Michigan Public School. health.. “Most of us also have a pandemic fatigue. We just want to end it.”

At the same time, the effects of social distance measurement are probably clearer than ever.New research published in Journal of American Medical AssociationHeaded by Wolf, he found that tight social distances cut the duration of the epidemic in the region by almost half.

For example, in New York, led by the Democratic Party, strict social distance measures were taken after the Covid-19 infection surged last spring. The epidemic in the region lasted for about nine weeks and became an “A” shaped orbit.

In contrast, the outbreak in Republican-led Sun Belt states such as Florida and Texas lasted up to 17 weeks, as top-priority economic concerns encouraged early resumption of business. Guided by a rhetorical and personal example from Donald Trump, Republicans were more resistant to the obligation to cover their faces and keep them socially distant.

“My concern about entering the fall is that this is a very dangerous time,” Wolf said. “We are entering the winter flu season and the baseline rate will not drop. [of coronavirus] As it should be. “

According to the same study, Covid-19 mortality can be underestimated by as much as 20%. If that is accurate and the United States continues to follow current trends, “By the end of the year, the number of excess deaths in 2020 could exceed 400,000 compared to the previous year. This is mainly Due to Covid in 19 Pandemics, “researchers at the Department of Public Health at TH Chan at Johns Hopkins University and Harvard University wrote: JAMA..

They added that some of the most annoying aspects of the pandemic were a continuous and disproportionate impact on the color community. If people of color die in the same way as white Americans, “in the United States, 19,500 blacks, 8,400 Latino Americans, 600 indigenous peoples, and 70 Pacific Islands are still alive.”

is more than 9 out of 10 Americans According to Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), some states have few social restrictions, but remain vulnerable to Covid-19 infection.

“I’m worried that winter will be the same, if not worse than last winter and spring,” Markel said. “I sincerely hope that I am wrong.”