Expert Advice for Winter 2021: Get Vaccinated and Wear a Mask Dr. Sanjay Gupta - CNN Health
go to original November 18, 2021

(funnydesignshop/Etsy)

The forecast for the coming winter isn't looking hopeful: Covid likely is not going away for the holidays.

Cases have at best plateaued for the country as a whole, and diagnoses have increased in half of states. Deaths are up in 13 states. With people headed indoors for the winter months and less than 60% of the population fully vaccinated, it's a recipe for further spread.

This might be frustrating for people who feel they've done all the right things by getting fully vaccinated, by wearing masks and by avoiding crowds. This should have been the holiday season to enjoy.

But the advice from the experts is pretty simple:

• Get a booster
• Wear a mask

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that masks are especially important if you are not vaccinated, immunocompromised, or in a public indoor settings somewhere that still has substantial or high transmission.

Public health experts are almost monotonous in their advice.

"I'm worried that the US has hit a plateau at an unacceptably high level – more than 70,000 new daily Covid-19 infections, more than 1,000 daily deaths – especially as we head into colder weather and the holidays. Everyone eligible for boosters should get one," said Dr. Leana Wen, CNN medical analyst and professor of health policy and management at George Washington University.

The First Wave - Trailer | National Geographic

Measles Is a Renewed Global Threat

The global threat of measles has become worse after 22 million babies missed their vaccinations because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the CDC warned last week.

Measles is one of the most contagious viruses on the planet and still kills more than 60,000 people a year – mostly young children. But it killed more than a million a year as recently as 2000.

"While reported measles cases dropped in 2020, evidence suggests we are likely seeing the calm before the storm as the risk of outbreaks continues to grow around the world," Dr. Kate O'Brien, director of the Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals at the World Health Organization, said in a statement.

CDC and WHO have been warning that the pandemic has damaged routine childhood vaccination programs.

"We must act now to strengthen disease surveillance systems and close immunity gaps, before travel and trade return to pre-pandemic levels, to prevent deadly measles outbreaks and mitigate the risk of other vaccine-preventable diseases," Dr. Kevin Cain, CDC's global immunization director, said in a statement.

The CDC estimates that measles vaccination programs prevent more than 31 million deaths a year

Diabetes Is a "Pandemic of Unprecedented Magnitude"

The year 2021 marks 100 years since the discovery of insulin, a game-changing drug in the fight against diabetes.

Despite a century of advancements in treatment, education and prevention, the statistics are still grim. One in 10 adults around the world – some 537 million people – are currently living with diabetes, according to figures recently released by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF).

By 2024, the IDF predicted that the number of people with diabetes is expected to rise to 1 in 8 adults.

"As the world marks the centenary of the discovery of insulin, I wish we could say we've stopped the rising tide of diabetes," IDF President Dr. Andrew Boulton told CNN. "Instead, diabetes is currently a pandemic of unprecedented magnitude."

Nearly 7 million adults have died worldwide in 2021 so far due to diabetes or its complications, the IDF estimated; that's more than 1 in 10 global deaths from any cause.

That doesn't count the lives lost to the coronavirus, which has been particularly deadly for people living with diabetes. A study published in February found having either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes tripled the risk of severe illness and death from Covid-19.

The pandemic also took a toll on how well people have managed their diabetes over the past year and a half, said Boulton, who is also a professor of medicine at the University of Manchester in the UK.

"My fear is we're going to see a tsunami in the next two years of diabetes and its complications because people have missed their screening appointments due to fear of catching Covid-19," he said.

Read more at CNN.com