Buckle Up—At Least One Forecasting Model Says We’re in for an Even Rougher Patch with COVID-19

With increasing spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, some states have already upgraded their pandemic status (New Jersey, for example, just went from yellow [moderate] to orange [high]). That doesn’t bode well for the future, given predictions from the PolicyLab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia that the entire country will see a dramatic jump in new cases over the next 4 weeks. A ripple effect that began with travel and gatherings over Thanksgiving weekend is now about to meet a new challenge in people again getting together—indoors—over the winter holiday break. Cases are expected to double this month in New York City, as they could in other large cities. As JUCM News reported recently, there’s now evidence that a two-dose vaccine regimen is insufficient to offer protection against Omicron, though it does appear that booster shots may increase protection against the variant.