A survey on ‘the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection and uptake of COVID-19 antiviral treatments during the BA.2/BA.2.12.1 surge, New York City’ suggests that the true burden of infection in the United States is 30 times more than in government data.
“It would appear official case counts are under-estimating the true burden of infection by about 30-fold, which is a huge surprise,” said Denis Nash, an author of the study and a distinguished professor of epidemiology at the City University of New York School of Public Health.
“It’s very worrisome. To me, it means that our ability to really understand and get ahead of the virus is undermined,” Nash said.
During the first covid surge the estimated numbers were 3 to 4 times larger than the official numbers.
“We’ve always known there were undercounts. We didn’t always know by how much they were under-counted,” Dr Nash said.
This severe undercounting could be because most people nowadays are home testing and some others do not get tested at all.
In the past few months, the focus has been on returning to what is being called ‘the normal’, and the focus has mostly shifted to uplifting economies that were badly affected due to first the covid-19 pandemic, and now the Russia-Ukraine war.
The emphasis on advisories and precautions has reduced and people are being told not to worry, as the infection is mild. And this can be a reason for a surge in cases, as untested or asymptomatic people are also carriers of the virus.
[ With inputs from agencies]
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