COVID cases are far higher than reported, Brigham and Women's doctor says
BOSTON -- Brigham and Women's Chief of Infectious Diseases Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes joined WBZ-TV on Saturday morning to discuss the current state of the pandemic. Here are his answers:
What is causing the rise in COVID cases right now?
We think that the rise in cases currently continues to be due to omicron or one of the newer sub-variants of omicron. It's not entirely clear what is causing the rise, most likely it's because we've had so much relaxation of the safeguards against COVID-19, especially around masking.
Are the COVID case numbers actually much higher because at-home tests are not being reported?
I think it is very likely that the true number of cases is several times higher than what we are seeing as the official numbers exactly because of home testing as you say. It's a good thing that people can test at home because then they have a faster way of knowing if they're infected, to seek care if appropriate, and to isolate themselves from others.
Do you recommend we return to masking and COVID protocols, especially as people gather for proms, graduations, and parties?
First and foremost it's important that people get vaccinated if they haven't and if they've been vaccinated to get boosted, and if in the right age group or risk group to get that second booster I think at this point would make sense. People can also protect themselves by masking even if others around them are not and that would be particularly careful to do so while on public transport or when at large indoor gatherings.
Will numbers continue to rise?
That is really hard to predict. The wastewater numbers are going up but they're not going up consistently and even the daily number of cases is not spiking up dramatically - we're not seeing doublings every couple of days, it's creeping up so it may be flattering out but we've learned not to predict things in this pandemic because it's so challenging to know exactly what's going to happen in the future.
