the variant the president has now accounts for almost 80% of all u.s. covid cases. you have some doctors calling ba.5 the worst version of the virus we have seen. what makes this variant dangerous compared to other omicron variants? sure. thank you so much for having me on. this variant is the worst for two reasons. one, it is much more contagious and to its able to evade immunity and to evade acquired immunity and vaccine acquired immunity so that s why so many people who had covid already, get reinfected, and that is why it is no surprise that our president actually was diagnosed with covid. as we let down covid protections such as mask-wearing, testing, vaccine requirements, and we have more
what that means in practical terms is that if you were infected three, four months ago, you could get reinfected. we re seeing high levels of reinfection. people not up-to-date on their vaccines have a lot of breakthrough infections. but the gd news here, martha, is our tools and our vaccines, if you are you have to date, if you get an infection, if you get treatments, those continue to work really, really well. so this is an area of concern. but we know how to manage this. well dr. jah said mandates shoup left to local jurisdictions and states. the former head of the fda says monkeypox is close to becoming an endemic case in the united states. the u.s. centers for disease control expects those numbers to rise in the coming weeks due to
again. but just given the trajectory and given the very high number of cases that we re seeing, it s very unlikely because cases usually do mean we have cases and then hospitalizations are lagging indicators. given the trajectory, it s very likely that we will go back to a mask mandate. wow. just extraordinary. because so many of us feel like we ve passed the worst of it, which, to some extent we have. but interesting to note that we could be going back to some satisfy those restrictions. and the highly contagious ba.5, the offshoot of the omicron variant, is largely to blame. i just want to play some sound of what the white house covid-19 response coordinator said on sunday. as you heard from dr. fauci, it is the most immune evasive. if you were infected three, four months ago, you can get reinfected. we re seeing high levels of reinfection. we re seeing people who are not up to date on their vaccines, have a lot of breakthrough
but if you are just, like, asking the question, how likely am i to be exposed to this virus if i m out and about, then look at the transmission map. if you look at the transmission map, it s basically almost entirely red. no matter where you are, basically, in the country, there is a lot of virus out there. if you re vaccinated, boosted, protected against serious illness, protected against death. if you re up-to-date on his vaccinations. emerging evidence of just getting infected and reinfected, that is cumulative risk. even if you re someone who was not at big risk from a single infection. if you get infected over and over again, that is a problem. that is why think masks, ventilation, and trying to do events outdoors, that is why it is so important when you look at those maps. dr. sanjay gupta, thanks much. coming up, out of control, storming the presidential palace and the prime minister s office. willll the interim president bring any stability to sri lanka? stay with us. . (vo