State Health Officer Dr. Jimmy Guidry warned a Legislative committee there will be another spike in COVID cases during flu season, and the spike will rival the numbers we saw in spring.
Guidry said his prediction is based on observations from the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918 where a spring wave subsided only to be replaced by a much deadlier late fall outbreak.
“They got comfortable and they said not a big deal. Then they had another spike that was almost double the original spike because they stopped doing things that protect people,” said Guidry.
Committee members also questioned Guidry about the small number of totals deaths that were solely attributed to COVID. Guidry says that number is misleading because of the nature of COVID, which pushes people with manageable illnesses to death’s door.
Guidry expressed concerns about efforts to further relax public health restrictions. He said numbers may be low now, but they’re only low because of the ongoing mitigation measures.
“If we say hey we don’t need to do this anymore we are good then we see a huge number of folks start getting this and the disease is spreading again then we are back to stay at home and nobody wants to go back to stay at home,” said Guidry.
Governor Edwards has indicated the current Phase Three guidelines could be in place until a vaccine is publicly available.
Guidry said the current success in limiting outbreaks in schools is unlikely to last long. He expects as the semester continues students will slack off on prevention measures and the virus will spread.
“My biggest fear is that we think it is going away and it is not, it is not going away it is just sitting there waiting for us,” said Guidry.
Comments