Fortune, April 2022
The U.S. is in a stealth wave of stealth Omicron—probably. It can’t be known for certain because the country doesn’t have the data it should have. That’s not for lack of technology or supply, but for lack of willpower. Americans largely don’t want to get tested for COVID right now. But it sure seems like another COVID wave, and Americans want to ignore it.
On Thursday the U.S. had a seven-day average of nearly 42,000 cases, according to the Johns Hopkins University and Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center dashboard, based on U.S. Department of Health and Human Services data—up 6,000 cases from a week ago and 14,000 cases from two weeks ago. These results don’t look like a wave. But it’s all about perspective, Fractal Therapeutics CEO and COVID researcher Dr. Arijit Chakravarty told Fortune. “We probably already are in a wave—the wave is the same size as the first wave in March 2020, which these days looks like a small wave to us.”
