Experts Assess U.S. Is Not in a ‘Second Wave’ of Coronavirus—the First One Never Ended

June 18, 2020 (EIRNS)—As the number of coronavirus cases surge in some U.S. states, there is discussion that this represents a “second wave” of cases beginning to hit. But Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), disputes this, as does Dr. Michael Osterholm, of the Minnesota-based Center for Infectious Disease and Research Policy (CIDRAP). They argue that the states in question never saw a significant enough decline in cases in the first wave which in fact, hasn’t yet ended.

In an interview with the Daily Beast and other media, Dr. Fauci also disputes the argument by Vice President Mike Pence that the increased number of COVID-19 cases is due merely to the increased testing. “You have to look at the increased number of hospitalizations,” he countered, which “are due to an increase in real cases,” not to testing. The reality is that the surge in cases is outpacing the increase in tests.

In a June 14 interview with Fox News Sunday, Dr. Osterholm said that, 5% of the U.S. population has been infected with the coronavirus to date. But, he continued, “this virus is not going to rest until it gets to about 60% or 70%. When I say ‘rest,’ I mean just slow down, so one way or another we’re going to see a lot of additional cases.” His fear, he said, is that the coronavirus will “hit a trough, in which cases will decline and then come back with a vengeance. We [the U.S.] are not planning for the fact that we are going to see a substantial part of our country become infected over the next 12 to 18 months if we don’t have a vaccine. We will never be blue or red again. We will be COVID-colored.”