Robert Redfield, who leads the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned a second wave of the coronavirus could be worse than the current outbreak.
Redfield told the Washington Post on Tuesday that he worries the pandemic could worsen next winter when the illness coincides with flu season.
“There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” Redfield said. “And when I’ve said this to others, they kind of put their head back, they don’t understand what I mean.”
The director said a two-fold wave of both COVID-19 and influenza could cause increased strain on the healthcare system as large numbers of people get sick.
Last week, Redfield said there might be a resurgence of cases as the weather begins to cool down, even if the United States gets the coronavirus under control in the next few months.
“I think we have to assume this is like other respiratory viruses, and there will be a seasonality to it,” Redfield said in an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America.
“The CDC is science-based, data-driven, [so] until we see it, we don’t know for certain [there will be a resurgence],” he continued. “But it is critical that we plan that this virus is likely to follow a seasonality pattern similar to flu, and we’re going to have another battle with it upfront and aggressively next winter.”
Some states have already begun the process of lifting social distancing restrictions that shuttered stores and businesses across the country. Even as protests have sprouted across the country, drawing attention to a dire economic situation caused by stay-at-home orders, there remains some concern about there being a resurgence of COVID-19 cases once businesses and life begin to return to normalcy.
Dr. Deborah Birx, the response coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, addressed Redfield’s comments during Tuesday’s briefing. She said the U.S. was “working on an algorithm” in which patients are first tested for influenza and then tested for COVID-19. She said the country is “building the testing capacity to be able to do that.”
“We’re also hoping by that time that we have additional treatment options for people with COVID-19,” Birx said. When further questioned whether she believes it will be worse than the outbreak now, Birx said she wasn’t so sure.
“I don’t know if it will be worse, I think this has been pretty bad,” she said. “I believe that we’ll have early warning signals.”
The U.S. has had more than 820,000 cases of the coronavirus and at least 44,200 deaths since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University.
