Covering COVID-19 is a daily Poynter briefing of story ideas about the coronavirus and other timely topics for journalists, written by senior faculty Al Tompkins. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. By now, we have come to understand how COVID-19 moves around the globe. If past predicts future, an autumn wave is building. As you will see in this update, researchers say a fall/winter COVID-19 wave is not inevitable, but it is becoming more likely. How big and how bad depends on several factors. This data is through the end of September across Western Europe: (Jean Fisch) Keep in mind that some of the countries report patients “with COVID-19” who might also have other conditions that require hospitalization. As epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina points out, Germany’s data accounts purely for COVID-19 cases, so pay special attention to that red line. One clue about why Germany’s figures rose so sharply could be this: (Jean Fisch) Nature.com reported this week: Evidence is building that the northern hemisphere is on course for a surge of COVID-19 cases this autumn and winter. New immune-evading strains of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, behaviour changes, and waning immunity mean that many countries could soon see large numbers of COVID infections — and potentially hospitalizations — say scientists. This summer, a group called the COVID-19 Scenario Modelling Hub projected that the U.S. might not suffer a fall and winter wave if people take advantage of the newest vaccine boosters and if there is no new highly infectious variant. But, as I reported earlier this week, a large portion of Americans don’t know about or don’t care about the new booster doses. And as Nature.com points out: In the backdrop, a slew of immunity-dodging variants are emerging globally, and researchers think these variants will fuel an autumn–winter wave. Probably not yet, says Tom Wensel …
Is the fall 2022 COVID-19 wave forming? – Poynter
