The Omicron variant’s worldwide surge has upended early hopes for returns to normalcy and points to a more uncertain future for the pandemic, some experts say. The advent of the variant has shaken many scientists who were once confident that they had a handle on SARS-CoV-2.
“I think in many ways, we are just as flabbergasted as the rest of society about how Omicron has seemingly come from nowhere and seemingly spread so quickly,” said infectious disease expert Jacob Lemieux of Massachusetts General Hospital.
First identified in November, just two months ago, Omicron has led to global case reports of around 3 million new cases a day worldwide, nearly a fifth of them in the US. In the last week, cities such as New York, Boston, and Washington, DC have reported signs that COVID cases have started to decline, echoing earlier drops seen overseas in the United Kingdom and in South Africa.
The CDC’s assembly of forecasts for COVID cases project the US peak coming nationwide in the next two weeks, heading up to 800,000 new cases a day before a sharp decline. Those same forecasts predict COVID-19 deaths approaching 3,000 a day in the US in February — nearly doubling the current, already awful rates — as the variant cuts its deadly swath through the country.
