As America ushers in 2024, a looming shadow of increased COVID-19 deaths casts a pall over the nation's relative normalcy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports a worrying 12.5% hike in deaths due to the virus in 2024's opening week, compared to the final week of 2023. States like Massachusetts, Missouri, and New Jersey are experiencing particularly sharp spikes in fatalities. A response from health authorities has been swift, with mask mandates making a comeback in a bid to stem the tide of infections and deaths, Scripps News reported.
The culprit driving this latest surge is the JN.1 variant. Accounting for over 60% of new cases in the US, the CDC affirms the variant is either "more transmissible or better at evading our immune systems" compared to its predecessors. With this new challenge, signs of readiness are emerging from the health care sector, as institutions like Johns Hopkins Medicine have already started to require all patients, visitors, and employees to once again don masks. "We anticipate this requirement to be in effect on a short-term basis while viral respiratory illness rates are high," Johns Hopkins officials said in a statement. While this measure is intended to be temporary, it reflects a grim acknowledgment that COVID-19 remains a formidable and dynamic adversary.
Joining the chorus of concern, a social media post from Lucky Tran, Ph.D., a science communicator at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, synthesized CDC data into a graph displaying the current wave as the second-largest in US history. Tran's intention was to raise awareness, for he believes that understanding the actual levels of the virus circulating can lead to more people being willing to adopt preventative measures. "Many people underestimate just how much virus is around," Tran told TODAY.com, emphasizing the importance of continued vigilance.
Moreover, projections suggest up to 2 million Americans could get infected on the peak day of the current wave. This estimate surpasses the highest daily infection count from last winter's wave, indicating a potentially more severe impact. The omnipresence of COVID is hard to ignore, especially when Dr. Albert Ko from Yale School of Public Health agrees that the focus should be less on comparing peaks and more on the immediate reality that COVID is spreading widely. "More important than saying this is more than the last wave or two waves or three waves ago ... is that we are getting into a surge, and the public should be aware about how to protect themselves," Ko underscored in his comments to TODAY.com.
The prevailing reality suggests that despite advancements in vaccines and treatments, the virus continues to outpace expectations, forcing a return to some of the strategies employed at the pandemic's outset. As health officials and institutions across the country brace for the impact of this surge, the reintroduction of mandates such as masking serves as a stark reminder that COVID-19 remains, for now, an intractable part of our lives.
