Local public health experts say OC residents can expect winter COVID surge fueled by Omicron

Local public health experts say OC residents can expect winter COVID surge fueled by Omicron

“The more data that I see, the more troubling it is,” said Sanghyuk Shin, a UC Irvine epidemiologist who’s been tracking Omicron spread in Europe and South Africa. “Every indication suggests that we could be headed into a very bad COVID winter. First, driven by Delta and then Omicron, I think, is going to take over very rapidly and potentially create a huge surge across the US,” he said in a Friday phone interview. … “These predictions are never a lock. The thing I think Omicron does is it kind of removes a lot of the doubt — there will be a winter wave. I was saying there was going to be a winter wave before, but if there was any doubt, that doubt is now gone,” Noymer said in a brief Friday phone interview.