Dr. Neal Elattrache told “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Thursday that current trends display “a lot of reason for optimism” that there may not be a second wave of coronavirus in the fall.
“I think that if we look at the trends of the virus, what’s happened over the summer and comparing where we are now to where we were in March and April, I think that the science and the data shows that we’re in a far different place with a far different disease now than we were then,” the orthopedic surgeon told Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
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“And I think there’s a lot of reason for optimism that we won’t see a second wave big enough to consider new lockdowns of the economy,” he continued. “Maybe we’ll have second ripples in different parts of the country but, a second wave, I don’t think that the science would support that.”
To help make his case, Elattrache cited “big parts of the American public” taking precautions and doing things “that from a personal standpoint would prevent them from getting sick and spreading the disease.”
The doctor urged focus on case numbers to be “given in context.”
“If you look at the death rate and the morbidity that the virus causes in the population, the hospitalizations, those are more meaningful numbers to look at and to see the trends that we have,” he said. “In the New York region for instance, the death rate in people over 65 years old back in March and April was about 15%. And now we look at those death rates and it’s about 2%. So we’re treating people better. We are able to identify positive cases better. And so there’s reasons for optimism including people that would get the disease.”
Dr. Elattrache went on to explain how science is learning more about T cell response to the virus, which serves a key role in protecting to some degree a significant percentage of people. (RELATED: Top Michigan County Democrat Supports Repeal Of Law Giving Gretchen Whitmer ‘Endless Ability To Create Law’)
“The T cell response is so important because what we’re seeing is in studies that are being done on T cell immunity to COVID-19 where we have reactive cells that can fight the disease if we get it, we see about 50 percent of our population has immunity to some degree to COVID-19, believe it or not,” he said.
