WTOP It’s not just President Biden who recently tested positive for COVID — cases of the virus are spiking across the country.
Nearly 40 states are reporting high COVID activity levels, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and emergency room visits are at their highest for the virus since February.
Why the seemingly sudden summer surge? There are a couple of factors at play, Dr. Céline Gounder, CBS News medical contributor and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News, told “CBS Mornings” Wednesday.
“One, the virus continues to evolve to stay ahead of our immune systems. That’s what we can talk about when we’re talking about variants,” she said. “Two, your immunity to infection only lasts about three months. Your immunity to severe disease, hospitalization and death, that lasts much longer, which is why people are not getting sick the way they were early in the pandemic. But it is to be expected that every few months, maybe twice a year or so, we’ll see a big wave of COVID across the country.”