Peter Merrill, deputy news editor
According to Caitlin Owens, reporter for Axios news, COVID-19 is spiking again in European countries. CNN reported that in the last two weeks, cases were up in the United Kingdom by 48% and hospitalizations by 17%. Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to the President, said that likely causes for this dramatic increase in cases were the reopening of society with unmasked people mingling indoors, waning immunity from vaccinations and the emergence of the B.A.2 variant, which is a highly contagious subvariant of Omicron. The spread of the B.A.2 subvariant is not solely contained to Europe. According to Melanie Merrin, Health Center assistant director, it is possible that the United States will see a similar spike in COVID-19 cases.
“Historically what we’ve seen with Covid is that we, our waves and peaks tend to lag a little bit behind Europe,” said Merrin. “So, if it follows the pattern that we’ve seen so far, we normally have the same trajectory — sometimes worse, than the European countries have.”
However, reported cases in the United States have plummeted despite European reports of the B.A.2 variant causing 12% of new COVID-19 cases according to CNN. Keri Althoff, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said that the effects of the B.A.2 COVID-19 variant could be even more devastating on the American population, as it is less vaccinated than the British. The B.A.2 variant, already the dominant strain worldwide, is much more contagious than the original version of COVID-19, but causes less serious illness. Merrin said that viruses often develop to become more contagious and less deadly so that they can proliferate more easily without killing their host. As subsequent variants have emerged, younger people have become more affected by COVID-19 because older demographics are more likely to be fully vaccinated. Most people who are hospitalized are either unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated.
According to Merrin, cases are likely underreported, as evidenced by testing wastewater for the virus. COVID-19 testing is not as widespread as it once was, with many free government facilities closing without funding. People are more likely to attribute their symptoms to common fevers or colds. With allergy season closing in, it is even more likely that people will ascribe their symptoms to pollen or other trivial ailments and will be less likely to test for the virus.
“It’s important to keep in mind that not everybody who is tested for Covid is tested with the DNA sequencing, which is the only way to tell what variant someone has,” Merrin said. “They can only do that in a molecular lab. Basically only people in the hospital get that done.”
It is unclear if Berry will return to the mask mandate or other protocols if COVID-19 spikes in Northwest Georgia.
“The Health Center doesn’t make those decisions at all,” Merrin said. “Administration consults with the local department of health and the state department of health and the CDC and also receives recommendations from the ACHA which is the American College Health Association about mitigation recommendations, and they closely watch not only the number of positive tests in an area, but also the hospitalization rate. If people start getting sick and filling up the hospitals again, we might have to go back to the mitigation strategies again.”
Merrin said that Berry has not seen a rise in COVID-19 cases with people returning to school from spring break, but that the health center is keeping an eye on the numbers.
“It still is important to listen to the recommendations about vaccination and getting your boosters because the variants have to some extent outwitted the vaccines as far as still being able to infect someone and cause symptoms but they’re still doing a really good job of preventing death and hospitalization,” Merrin said.