Food and Drug Commissioner Stephen Hahn on Wednesday said a second, more debilitating wave of the new coronavirus this winter is certainly a possibility, sharing the concern of Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“I think that it’s certainly a possibility, and the whole task force [of] doctors is concerned about the second wave,” Dr. Hahn said on “CBS This Morning.” “But that’s why we have built into the plan the surveillance mechanisms to look for the respiratory illnesses and then to do the appropriate testing at that time. That’s going to be a critical part of the reopening plan.”
Dr. Redfield had told The Washington Post on Tuesday that a second wave this winter could be even worse than the current crisis.
“There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” he said. “And when I’ve said this to others, they kind of put their head back, they don’t understand what I mean.”
“We’re going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time,” Dr. Redfield said.
Dr. Hahn also said that March 2021 is still an estimate for when there could be a vaccine.
“But we’re really trying to accelerate the efforts, and we will try for sooner,” he said.
