Dr. William Schaffner, professor of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University, is concerned that Covid-19 could be much worse in the fall.
“What I’m concerned about since the virus is now seeded throughout the United States, come the fall, when it kicks up again, it is going to kick up everywhere, and small rural hospitals will find themselves taking care of Covid patients they can’t transfer to the major medical centers because the intensive care units there are already full,” Schaffner told CNN’s Chris Cuomo.
“I hate to be grim, but I’m afraid the second wave this fall could be worse than the first wave we are still experiencing.”
Schaffner said testing has to expand even further, with particular focus on nursing homes, prisons, businesses where there are outbreaks, agricultural workers, and high-risk populations to find out the true extent of the infection in the US.
“It’s spreading much more widely than even the statistics show,” Schaffner said.