Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former director of the FDA, on Face the Nation yesterday. He says that the nation (not individual regions of the nation) should see an omicron peak by the end of February, based on the UK and South Africa experience, with a two month wave of omicron from start to finish. He says that the northeast and Florida should peak two weeks from now, but other parts of the country still will go through the wave for their two month periods.
He also says that he doesn't think that schools should mandate booster vaccines for 12-15 year olds, that it depends on their health and that parents and doctors should make those decisions. Healthy 12-15 year olds shouldn't need the boosters, he says studies show that even after 6 months they have a good response to covid, their immune systems are young and healthy and they don't really need booster shots.
He does say that he is concerned about younger children, pre-schoolers and toddlers, since they have more trouble with upper airway infections, and omicron is now understood to cause more of an upper respiratory infection, not a lower respiratory infection like earlier variants. He is really concerned about omicron and this age group.
Also he notes that cloth masks don't protect us from airborn viruses like covid-19, but they do protect from viruses like the flu that are droplets.
So hunkering down until the end of February, when possible, sounds like a good idea. Of course that isn't always possible, so taking precautions like wearing N95 masks when you need to go out is recommended. And getting the booster shot if you are at high risk of serious outcome if you contract the virus.
at all the audience without masks until I realized it was about their 2010 concert at The Troubadour!
