Nov. 18, 2022
Dear Members of the Baylor College of Medicine Community,
Our discussion turns back to COVID today. Most concerning is not right now, but what might be ahead. Globally, China is facing its largest spike of COVID cases in a month. In the United States, cases and hospitalization continue to rise, driven in part by a growing outbreak in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico. Those areas have seen hospitalizations increase by more than 30 percent in the past two weeks. By contrast, daily deaths from the coronavirus have decreased by 9 percent in recent weeks, but still are around 325 per day.
In this week’s video, I take a look at some of the reasons for concern. First on the list is not enough people are getting an updated, or bivalent booster. Only about 10 percent of the country has received this easy-to-obtain booster. Another reason for worry is that wastewater viral loads are going up nationally and also in Houston.
Most importantly, a cluster of variants are about to infect a lot of people, particularly those who have not received the updated booster. The current crop of immunity-dodging offshoots of the Omicron variant is unprecedented in its diversity. This COVID ‘variant soup’ is making winter surges hard to predict. I include a good bit of info on this in the video.
Also this week, look for an update on a masking vs non-masking review of school districts in Massachusetts and a very interesting look at which animals catch COVID. And of course, there is a RSV and flu update.
Next week there likely will be some turkey talk, so be sure to tune in. We’ll probably get the video out a bit earlier in the week.
Have a great weekend. See you next week.
Paul Klotman, M.D.
President & CEO
Executive Dean
