For the last few months, experts had expressed optimism that the BA.5 variant represented nearly all COVID cases as new COVID booster shots, specifically designed to target that variant, rolled out.
“We are not helpless against these challenges," he said. “What happens this winter is up to us.”
"If we don't get a lot of people to get this updated vaccine this fall, we are really set up in a not great way for the potential for a new variant," Arwady said."I am very hopeful we won't see one, but that really is the question every time there's another COVID infection. That is the opportunity for a new variant to potentially emerge. That's how they emerge."
Germany's health minister warned at the end of September that the country is seeing a steady rise in COVID-19 cases as it goes into the fall, and urged older people to get the new COVID booster shots. Other European countries such as France, Denmark and the Netherlands are also recording an increase in cases, Karl Lauterbach told reporters in Berlin.Despite vaccine uptake, Arwady said she is still anticipating a surge in the coming months.
As of Oct. 8, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed the BA.5 variant continued to drop in numbers, making up 79.2% of U.S. cases, a decline from the 81.5% reported last week. Meanwhile, BA.4.6 rose to 13.6% and BF.7 to 4.6%.
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