COVID surge didn’t materialize in Pennsylvania this winter — but will it?
What makes XBB.1.5 variant unique?
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Scott LaMar
Airdate: January 31, 2023
Halfway through the third winter of COVID-19, we have not seen the wave or surge of cases that we did the previous two years. Why not?
There was an uptick of COVID cases nationally just after the holidays, but in the past few weeks, that trend has reversed itself.
It may not be as well known or as widespread as the omicron variant last year, but the highly contagious XBB.1.5 variant is dominant in the northeast right now.
On The Spark Tuesday, Dr. John Goldman, an infectious disease specialist with UPMC in Central Pennsylvania was asked how he categorize COVID right now,”We are seeing COVID go from being a pandemic disease with very high rates of infection, lots of cases and lots of severe disease, hospitalizations and deaths to what’s more like an endemic disease, a disease where it spreads more slowly. We’re seeing fewer cases, but most importantly, the cases that we’re seeing are much more mild.”
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Dr. John Goldman, infectious disease specialist at UPMC Harrisburg.
Dr. Goldman said he thinks there may have been a surge of COVID cases but,”I think the number of cases is grossly under counted because you count the case if it has a positive PCR and is reported. Almost everyone I know who’s recently been diagnosed with COVID did it by a home test. And we probably had a bigger surge in cases 5 to 10 times as many cases as we know. But importantly, those cases didn’t produce hospitalizations and deaths because of the immunity. So I think we actually had many more cases than we realized. I think there was a surge in cases, but there was not a surge in hospitalizations. Not a surge. And just because with preexisting immunity, it is a much less severe disease.”
When asked what we can expect from COVID going forward, Goldman answered,”We’re going to see more variants. And I think each year there’ll be a new variant. But first, the virus is beginning to get to the point where it’s as contagious as measles. It’s as contagious as our most contagious infectious diseases. And I’m not sure how much higher it can go. But more importantly. It doesn’t appear as though these new variants, even if they’re more contagious, even if they have more breakthrough infections, cause anywhere near the same numbers of deaths or hospitalizations, which in my mind makes it with each season, this will look more and more like the flu.
