US warned of coronavirus 'fourth wave' by expert

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Speaking to US news programme TODAY Dr Richard Besser, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the largest American philanthropic health company, said some states in the States were experiencing a fourth Covid wave as new variants arrive in the country. He voiced serious concerns over vaccine shortages after Johnson & Johnson reported production problems and warned America does not have enough vaccines to fill that shortfall. The physician went on to raise his serious concerns that parts of the United States are opening up despite rising cases while other states should not be fooled by falling cases as this could change.

Dr Richard Besser was asked what can be done to tackle the concerning combination of rising coronavirus cases, new variants and vaccination progress unfolding all at the same time in the USA.

The doctor replied: “It is a race and those are competing forces.

“I was so excited to see the numbers in terms of people being vaccinated over the weekend and it lets me know the demand for vaccine is still there and that’s been one of the big concerns.

“But that variant that was found in the U.K. is very concerning, it spreads easier, it is more deadly.”

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But Dr Besser warned: “I worry when I see states letting up, Dr Fauci was saying it is premature to declare victory especially when we see cases going up in a number of states.

“The states that are seeing the declines, it doesn’t mean they are not going to see a rise (in cases).”

He added that in fact, some states are experiencing “what you might call a fourth surge” and added “when you really look at the curve” there is “a dramatic increase”.

But earlier in the show he warned “there will be millions of doses” not getting to Americans on time because of a shortage in the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine cause by production problems adding that it “is going to be a problem for many states.”

Covid variant: Expert on concerns over 'double-mutant' strain

Last Monday the USA reported that a “double mutant strain” of coronavirus had been discovered in a testing sample in a lab in San Francisco, California.

Speaking to Good Morning America, infectious disease expert at Stanford University Dr Yvonne Maldonado said this was the first time this particular “double mutant” strain had been found in America.

And Dr Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Advisor to President Joe Biden, stressed that the US was now in a race to combat the new double mutant variant.

He added:Dr Fauci said: “It’s kind of like a race between getting people vaccinated and the more people on a daily basis you get vaccinated, the better chance you have of blunting or preventing that surge that we are all concerned about.”

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On April 3 the USA delivered an astonishing 4.1 million vaccinations in a single day which is more than the total population of some states.

According to Bloomberg the 7-day rolling average of doses administered last week across the US was 3.14 million a day.

As of Monday April 12, the USA has administered 187 million vaccine doses to its citizens.

But the country has seen a massive 554,739 deaths to the virus – the USA’s population is 328.2 million.

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