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Mississippi and the rest of the United States may be in a great COVID-19 undercounting stage, with a surge in transmission that may be late to appear in the official case counts. The consequence may be a growing surge that appears to be persisting in spite of data comparing it to the least infectious days of the pandemic.
“As SARS-CoV-2 continues to evolve and is likely to become endemic, it is possible people may need periodic booster shots for the foreseeable future,” Immunologist David R. Martinez writes. “I suspect scientists will eventually need to update the COVID-19 vaccine to take on newer variants, as they do for flu.”
Ridgeland-based life coach and counselor Karen Bonner said the pandemic negatively affected many people’s mental health in part because it exposed that modern society has at least a degree of fragility.
After more than three years as state health officer, Dr. Thomas Dobbs—the man who led the Mississippi State Department of Health through the COVID-19 pandemic thus far—is set to resign at the end of July.
Doctors are warning that the pandemic has broken Mississippi’s health-care system, and now as omicron washes over the state, doctors and nurses are exhausted and rushing to catch up.
Omicron continues its march across the nation, promising another winter of high transmission of COVID-19. But further ahead in 2022, more robust treatments for the virus are rekindling hopes that the world may have better tools to fight the pandemic soon.
The omicron variant of COVID-19 is spreading rapidly across the U.S., and is driving transmission in states neighboring Mississippi, likely to outcompete the remains of delta in the state after beginning community transmission.
Mississippi’s daily average COVID-19 caseload is now at its highest point since late October. Today, Dec. 9, 2021, the Mississippi State Department of Health reported 745 new cases, marking the second day in a row with more than 700 cases.
Laboratory studies of the omicron variant of COVID-19 from multiple sources reveal a dramatic decrease in neutralizing activity from prior infection with earlier variants and the available vaccines. The results provide a challenging prospect for the future of the pandemic if the variant becomes dominant, and strongly encourage a booster dose for all adults, regardless of health conditions.
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