Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
Ohio experts are forecasting we are at the beginning of another surge in COVID-19 this winter, although vaccines will likely mean fewer hospitalizations and deaths than last year and the brunt of it will be borne by unvaccinated people.
“Although I think we’ll see an increase in cases, many of the vaccinated people will likely not get severe illness or go to the hospital,” said Dawn Wooley, a Wright State University professor with a doctorate in virology. “The unvaccinated people are probably likely to get the more severe effects and have to be hospitalized.”
Emerging evidence indicates COVID-19 is a seasonal virus that thrives in colder weather like flu and other coronaviruses, Wooley explained. Compounding the problem, Ohio is far from reaching herd immunity, and many unvaccinated Americans plan to travel and gather over the holidays.
Before Thanksgiving, Ohio and the Dayton region began seeing an uptick in cases and hospitalizations, undoing much of the progress made since the recent peak in September.
Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff said Tuesday it’s difficult to predict COVID-19 patterns, but said the recent numbers do not bode well.
“We are heading into the winter with very high levels of disease transmission,” he said. “And over the last couple of weeks, a definite upturn in the number of cases and the number of hospitalizations. So essentially we’re heading into the winter already in a surge.”
