As summer winds down, much of the U.S. is experiencing another COVID surge.

It's the biggest wave we have seen in at least two years, and hundreds of people are still

being killed every single week by this virus.

According to the CDC's analysis of hospitalizations, 25 states in the US have or likely

have rising numbers of COVID infections.

And the spread is nationwide in the west, the south, the midwest, and the northeast.

I recently spoke with Dr. Eric Topel.

He's the founder and director of the Scripps Research

Translational Institute and I asked him what was behind this uptick?

Right, William, well it there's a significant rate of infections, perhaps around a

million people infected Americans per day. There are three factors that are

contributing. One is that there's a variant which is distinctly more challenging

to our immune system and that's the so-called K-P 311. Second is that we have immunity waning because more than six months from a booster

shot or an infection. We have a harder time to recognize and deal with the virus.

And third, of course, is that we've largely abandoned

any mitigation measures.

So these three things together

are causing the biggest summer wave of infections, not necessarily

hospitalizations, then we've seen over the past a couple of years.

Well on that point, apart from the concerns over long COVID as you're saying hospitalizations

and deaths are the things that we really do worry about what does the data

indicate is going on in that regard? Fortunately there hasn't been a big spike in hospitalizations or deaths

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