Is This Winter Different?..."No Signs of COVID Surge" Forecast by US Experts

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[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] Experts have predicted that the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been widespread over the past two years, will not spread significantly this coming winter season.

Recently, the Washington Post (WP) in the United States reported this by citing predictions from several research teams shared with the U.S. federal government authorities.

According to the report, most research teams forecast that from this fall, the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations will either remain stable or show a decreasing trend.

While there is a possibility of a resurgence in winter due to increased viral activity as temperatures drop and the emergence of new variants, the research teams explained that people have developed a certain level of immunity through multiple exposures to new variants.

Additionally, the recent approval for the sale of Moderna and Pfizer booster shot vaccines, which have been modified to target the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, is also expected to help suppress the spread of COVID-19 during the winter season.

Earlier, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced last month that it recommends approval for the sale of these vaccines. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) also issued a statement on the 1st, saying, "This vaccine, modified to target the Omicron variant, has shown strong immune responses in people who have previously received existing vaccines," and recommended approval for sale.

In this regard, Justin Lessler, a professor in the Department of Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina, said, "There may be a mild resurgence of COVID-19 this fall," but added, "There are no signs of it spreading like during the Omicron wave." However, WP noted that his analysis assumes that COVID-19 booster shots will be administered at levels similar to annual flu vaccinations.

Meanwhile, in the United States, thanks to COVID-19 vaccinations, the spread slowed down after May last year, and resurgence has only been observed when new variants have appeared. Experts expect this trend to continue unless a variant more transmissible than BA.5 emerges.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.