“It’s just irresponsible to do the kinds of things you’re seeing many governors doing,” as variants spread with millions still unvaccinated, said Ashish Jha, dean of the school of public health at Brown University. Each time it infects a new person, the possibility increases of additional mutants that could spread faster or evade vaccines. It’s likely that this strategy will dampen rates of severe disease and deaths in the case of another surge. The projection is based on faster reductions in mask-wearing, increases in mobility and spread of variants of concern, according to IHME. Walensky on Monday compared U.S. Covid trends to those a few weeks ago in the European Union, which has since seen spikes occur.
