U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy urged calm on Sunday as a Covid-19 wave fueled at least partially by a new sub variant of the virus spread across Europe, adding that the pandemic should “not define our lives.”
During an appearance on Fox News Sunday with Trace Gallagher, Murthy said the country needs to exercise caution with the new spike in Europe but shouldn’t live in fear because of all of the tools at our disposal to combat the disease.
“We should be prepared that Covid hasn’t gone away. There may be rises and falls in the months ahead, but here’s the key: Our goal is to keep people out of the hospital, it’s to save their lives. We have more tools to do that than ever before,” he said. “If we get people these tools — vaccines, boosters, treatments — then we can actually get through waves that may come and go.”
Britain, Germany, Finland, Switzerland and other European nations have experienced case upticks in recent weeks attributed to the new sub variant. Cases in the U.S. have been steadily declining as Omicron wanes, although the sub variant is expected to spread to our shores and across the country as international travel resumes.
“I don’t think we can afford to move on,” Murthy said, “but I do think that we can move forward with more confidence, that we can live our lives and not let Covid define our lives, because we do have in fact better tools that have proven to save our lives and keep us out of the hospital and that’s really the goal.”
Most states and cities, regardless of political makeup, have dropped the bulk of their Covid-19 restrictions, including mask and vaccine mandates for indoor recreational activities and workplaces. One key exception is New York City, which has maintained its employer vaccine requirement and its mask rule for school children under five, the demographic statistically at very low risk of developing severe complications from Covid-19. Subvariant BA.2 is considered more transmissible than the original Omicron but still very mild. If it sweeps the nations, government’s reimposing mitigation measures after two-years of societal upheaval is not likely to be without steep political costs.