Virus Blizzard News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Opening schools. i think it's going to be really challenging to open schools in this kind of virus blizzard, this virus firestorm. i have advised places like washington, d.c. and new york if you can hold it off a couple of weeks, recognizing that that's really difficult given all the schools that kids have missed, maybe make it up on the pack end or shortened vacations in the summer, that might be one way to go. i think it's going to be really challenging when you have a virus agent that's looking like it's as transmissible as measles, which is a historically been the most transmissible virus ...

How much worse do you fear it could get? >> well, you know, i think the way this is going to work, joe, is we're seeing this kind of regionalization of this big wave, this big firestorm, what my friend mike osterholm calls this virus blizzard. it's starting first in the northeast, washington, d.c. is just unbelievable level of transmission, new york city. this is going to continue probably for a couple of more weeks, then you are now seeing it pick up in pennsylvania, ohio, indiana, illinois. and then it's going to go over the rest of the country and then we will starting to down in new york a...

So it doesn't take a lot of increase in hospitalizations because that kind of disruption and breakdown. >> and that leads us to schools. schools across the country are reopening five days from now. many are opening on january 3rd. and you don't like this idea. so what's wrong with it? >> well, you know, first of all, you know, i understand the importance of bringing back kids to school. i was, i'm a parent of now they're four adult kids, but when they were little, we understood the importance as well as anyone of that. we just had a pretty serious report from the surgeon general about the ment...

Projection, a tidal wave? >> well, i don't know if it's going to be a tidal wave but certainly a lot of pediatric hospitalizations. more than we've ever seen. and it's not because the virus is selectively targeting kids. what we've seen in south africa and the uk is when you have this firestorm or what my friend mike osterholme calls virus blizzard. there will be pediatric hospitalizations. and the other tough piece, keeping the schools open because of this high transmissible. you start seeing absences of teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria staff. that's all going to feed into this. the bottom li...

>> reporter: others fear the return to school next week could be even worse. >> i think what we're going to see is once children go back to school, within a week or two of schools opening, is when we see the highest numbers. >> reporter: amid the winter weather, the pandemic is roaring across the country, with 250,000 new cases diagnosed daily, that's a record. >> this variant is a game-changer in terms of its high, high transmissability. it's like a virus blizzard. >> reporter: hospitalizations are half of what they were last winter. but some are seeing peaks there, too. and more vaccinated m...