Rates of Covid-19 are once again rising around much of the country, and also around the world, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:03 — 1.4MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Everywhere you look it seems more people are being infected with the coronavirus, with hospitalizations also rising around the US and the world. Brian Garibaldi, a critical care medicine expert at Johns Hopkins, says weariness is pervasive.

Garibaldi: I’m disappointed. Everyone’s tired. Everybody’s tired of not doing the things you want to do. Spring is here and you want to go out, you want to do the things you’re used to doing in the spring. You want to be with your friends, you want to be at large gatherings, you want to be at holidays. And I think we’re seeing those effects with what’s happening with the numbers. Obviously every state is a little bit different but the majority of states are reporting an increase in cases, an increase in hospitalizations. An increase in ICU level care, the numbers are going straight up again. What we don’t yet know is at what point we’re going to temper that with the benefits of the vaccine.  :30

Garibaldi notes that the recent pause of the J and J vaccine will inevitably slow down the pace of immunizations, and provide an opportunity for additional spread of the virus. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.