On Sunday, the White House COVID czar revealed that they would take a wait-and-see approach in their response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Ashish Jha revealed they would have to wait and see how the pandemic unfolds when determining policy on issues like requiring masks for flying.
As a guest on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Jha expressed support for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recent decision to keep a mask requirement for air travelers in place until at least May 3.
“I think in 15 days we’ll have a lot more information. And then they are going to make a decision,” Jha said.
“They’re going to make a recommendation based on their science assessment,” Jha added.
Meanwhile, Jha hit the draconian lockdown in Shanghai, where tough daily life restrictions have led to unrest reports.
“We don’t think that this zero-COVID strategy that China is pursuing is likely to work,” he said.
“I think it’s very difficult with a highly contagious variant to be able to curtail this through lockdowns,” he added.
On the Philadelphia authorities’ recent move to bring back an indoor mask mandate, Jha has remained neutral on the matter.
“I don’t think it’s useful for those sitting in Washington to second-guess those decisions,” Jha said.
The latest US health data has shown a sharp increase in cases in the U.S. and beyond after the winter holidays.
Data from Johns Hopkins University state that the U.S. had an average of 36,831 cases, up 38% from two weeks earlier.
Sources said daily hospitalizations around the country have also hovered around 15,000.
Moreover, Jha repeated one of the authorities’ main refrains since vaccines became available in late 2020.
“The good news is our vaccines are holding up well against BA.2, against all of the omicron variants, especially if you’ve been boosted,” he said.
“So the key here is you’ve got to have the initial two shots, and then you’ve got to have a booster,” he added.
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