South Africa's Omicron surge was shaped like an "ice pick," CDC head says. What that could mean for the US.
From CNN’s Jamie Gumbrecht
The wave of Omicron Covid-19 cases in South Africa was an “ice pick” rather than a wave, and the United States may see a similar precipitous rise and fall in cases, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a CDC telebriefing on Friday.
There are some reasons to expect the surges will look the same — and reasons they may differ, she said.
“I do think in places that we are seeing this really steep incline, that we may well see also a precipitous decline,” she said. “But we're also a much bigger country than South Africa, and so it may very well be that we see this ice-pick shape, but that it travels across the country. Right now, we're of course seeing it in the Northeast in the highest burden.”