According to a forecast from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the rate of new COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. is expected to decrease over the next four weeks. This is the first predicted decrease since June.
Additionally, for the third week in a row, the CDC forecast predicted that hospitalizations will decrease over the coming days and weeks, too. While the Delta variant continues to spread, the CDC’s prediction does offer some much needed hope.
The current rate of COVID-19 deaths averages around 2,000 every day, with roughly 114,000 people being infected daily.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former US Food and Drug Administration commissioner, spoke to CNN earlier this week and said that the Delta-driven wave of the pandemic could finish running its course by Thanksgiving. Eventually, COVID-19 could become a “seasonal nuisance” instead of a never-ending pandemic. But these predictions are dependent on more people getting vaccinated and make safe, healthy choices.
Of the entire US population, 55.5% are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the CDC. There’s no definitive percentage of the population who need to be vaccinated to control the spread, but most health experts agree it needs to be the “vast majority.”
Unfortunately, a large portion of the population are hesitant to get vaccinated for a variety of reasons. RELEVANT sat down with Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, for our fall magazine issue to address some of these concerns and explore why people are hesitant to get vaccinated.
“It seemed like [a vaccine] was something everybody would run to embrace. Yet, obviously, it’s been a little more complicated than that,” Collins said.