Dr. Jha on omicron surge, holiday travel, his prediction for next year
The omicron surge is so dangerous due to a combination of higher transmissibility and the variant's ability to make vaccinated people mildly sick from the disease, Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said on "Good Morning America" Monday.
While there are still a lot of unknowns about omicron's severity, Jha said cases with this latest variant's surge are "doubling in numbers about every two to three days."
"That’s unlike anything we've seen," he said.
Jha said, "I do think lots of people are going to get [omicron]."
"It's an incredibly contagious variant. I think people should understand that the goal cannot be to avoid infection at all cost -- that's an unrealistic goal," he said. "The goal should be: prevent deaths and severe illness, which vaccines will do, [and] keep our hospitals from getting crushed, which again, vaccinations and testing can help with. This is very contagious. Lots of Americans will end up getting it. Let's just make sure that they don't get very sick from it. "
For people traveling over the holidays, Jha said airplanes are pretty safe, but he recommended wearing a high-quality mask because airports don't always have great ventilation.
Looking forward, Jha said, "I think we're going to be in much better shape next year."
The vaccines have already been in the U.S. for one year, Jha said, and he predicted the omicron surge will build more immunity.
"I am not saying COVID will be gone next winter. It will be around, but we should be able to get better and better at managing it," Jha said. "This winter is so much better than last year and I expect next winter will be so much better than this year."
