US braced for ‘third peak’ of coronavirus pandemic

Memories of lockdowns and mask mandates may have started to recede, but experts are bracing the US public for a “third peak” in the pandemic this autumn, with a resurgence of Covid-19 threatening to engulf the country once more.<br><br>Dr Anthony Fauci, the chief medical adviser to Joe Biden, said this week that the situation was made all the more complex because the next wave was likely to be a combination of new and old variants of the virus.<br><br>“It is likely that we will see another variant emerge and that we will enter another cycle of the virus,” he said. “We are looking over our shoulder for what the next variant is going to be.”<br><br>Fauci’s words were echoed by Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who told the Washington Post this week: “We have an uptick in cases. We are seeing an increase in hospitalisations. Unfortunately, we are seeing a rise in deaths. It’s time to take a deep breath and think about what the fall might look like.”