US Rep. Maxine Waters was spotted without her mask on during a United Airlines flight - and a witness claims she kept it off for an entire hour - despite the mandatory mask regulations in place and the growing risk of COVID-19 as cases of the Omicron variant soar.
Waters, a California Democrat, was pictured on a flight from Dulles Airport, in Virginia, to Los Angeles International without her mask on and even took a nap maskless, all while flight attendants supposedly nagged other passengers to wear their masks, the Daily Wire reported.
'Attendants brought her fresh coffee while she was napping and didn't say a thing as three of them walked past and saw Maxine reading and then sleeping while she remained maskless,' the source who gave the Daily Wire the photo on Thursday said.
US Rep. Maxine Waters went maskless for at least an hour aboard a United Airlines flight. The photographer said the California Democrat was not asked to put her mask on by staff
Experts and health officials warn that COVID-19 cases will soar in the coming weeks
The photo showed her next to a coffee cup although the witness claims her mask was off for closer to an hour.
The source who took the photograph of Waters said she did so because she felt it was unfair for the United Airlines staff to hound her about keeping her mask on after she suffered a bloody nose while Waters was allowed to be maskless for so long.
United Airlines and Water's office did not immediately respond to the Daily Mail's request for comment.
Waters had heavily criticized then-President Donald Trump in 2020 for his refusal to wear masks and follow social distancing protocols at many events.
She slammed the former president on Twitter as 'dangerous' and called the refusal to wear masks part of 'Trump's failed leadership,' which she claimed was 'responsible for growing infections, death & surge in coronavirus cases.'
Waters, of California, had been critical of Donald Trump for not wearing a mask and said his attituded helped the surge of coronavirus cases last year
Waters maskless appearance comes as COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the US, with the nation reporting 141,205 new cases in the past day and 2,167 new deaths, according to John Hopkins University.
Only about 62 percent of eligible Americans are currently vaccinated against COVID.
US Omicron cases also jumped by a third overnight, from 241 on Wednesday to 319 on Thursday.
But experts have warned those are the tip of the iceberg, and that American cases likely already number in the tens of thousands.
White House COVID tsar Dr. Anthony Fauci even remarked on the variant's 'extraordinary' ability to spread, before revealing that cases will double every three days.
Immunologists have also forecast a potential triple-whammy of Omicron, Delta and regular flu infections this winter. Two doctors interviewed by DailyMail.com said those who haven't received a booster shot should consider returning to Spring 2020-style self-isolation, when COVID's Alpha variant raged through the US, and no vaccines were available.
Speaking on Good Morning America on Thursday, Fauci also confirmed Omicron was on track to be the dominant Covid strain in America within weeks.
Dr Anthony Fauci (pictured), the nation's top infectious disease expert told Good Morning America on Thursday that Omicron transmits very efficiently, and the current outbreaks overseas are signs of things to come for the U.S. if more people do not get boosted
He said: 'Certainly what [Omicron] is showing us in other countries [is that it spreads faster than other variants] and I believe soon in our own country.
'It has an extraordinary ability to transmit efficiently and spread. It has what we call a doubling time of around three days.
'And if you do the math on that, if you have just a couple of percentage of the isolates being Omicron, very soon it's going to be the dominant variant. We've seen that in South Africa, we're seeing it in the U.K. and I'm absolutely certain that's what we're going to be seeing here relatively soon.'
The doubling time of three days is slightly longer than the 2.5 days reported by British and South African health officials.
On Thursday, the UK recorded its second-consecutive day of record infections - 88,376 - 24 hours after Wednesday's total of 78,610. That is a 74 per cent jump in a week, with 15 people who've been infected with Omicron so-far hospitalized in the UK.
Omicron is believed to represent up to 13 per cent of new diagnoses in New Jersey and New York - states with extremely well-populated areas - giving a possible early taste of what's to come with the new strain.
Fauci continues to urge Americans to get vaccinated, and boosted, to protect themselves from the virus, especially now with the new threat of Omicron circulating. A total of 16.5 per cent of Americans have so-far had the booster shot.
'We need to do everything that we have been talking about up to now, and even more so,' he said.
He spoke hours after the CDC agency released forecasts on Wednesday night showing that weekly Covid cases will increase by 55 percent to 1.3 million per week - or 185,714 per day - by Christmas.
It also predicted deaths with jump by 73 percent to up to 15,600 per day by early January - or 2,228 deaths per day.
Some of that predicted surge is already appearing in parts of the country, with Florida revealing 6,381 new cases on Thursday - the state's largest single day Covid increase since September.
The Delta variant is still the dominant Covid strain in the U.S., accounting for around 97 percent of sequenced cases. Omicron is quickly making up ground, though, with the newly discovered variant jumping seven-fold in a week from making up 0.4 percent of cases to 2.9 percent of case, according to the most recent CDC data.
The graphs show the amount of the coronavirus detected in human bronchial cells (left) and lung cells (right) 24 and 48 hours after coming into contact with the original strain of the virus (pink), Delta (orange) and Omicron (red). There was 70 times more Omicron recorded in the bronchus — the main pipe connecting the airways and lungs — compared to previous strains, but 10 times less virus in the lungs when compared to the original version and Delta. Experts from the University of Hong Kong said this suggests the virus is more transmissible but may cause less severe illness
Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive officer of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, has warned of a nightmare scenario where Delta, Omicron and regular seasonal flu could combine to inflict the winter from hell on US hospitals already struggling to cope with an influx of patients.
She told CNN: 'It's the combination. It's kind of the perfect storm of public health impacts here with Delta already impacting many areas of the country and jurisdictions. We don't want to overwhelm systems more.'
Early data also shows that people who are only fully vaccinated, but have not yet received their booster, are still extremely vulnerable to the virus, with Johnson & Johnson's single-dose shot offering effectively no protection.
Booster shots have been deemed effective against the variant, though, with both Moderna and Pfizer revealing data in recent days showing their vaccines will cause massive increases in antibody levels and up to 75 per cent protection from Covid symptoms.
But confusion remains about just how effective boosters are against a strain that was only identified after Americans began receiving them en-masse.
A new study by Columbia University in New York, published on Thursday, said: 'Even serum from persons vaccinated and boosted with mRNA-based vaccines exhibited substantially diminished neutralizing activity against (omicron),'
Dr Chris Thompson (pictured), an infectious disease expert at Loyola University of Maryland, said that Americans who have not yet been boosted should bring back some early-pandemic habits
Only around 16.5 percent of Americans have received the additional vaccine dose so far though - as they were not widely available until late November - meaning that more than 80 percent of Americans are at risk from Omicron.
Dr. Chris Thompson is an infectious disease expert at Loyola University of Maryland. He told DailyMail.com on Thursday that people who have not received their booster dose yet may want to bring back some early pandemic habits like social distancing, masking, frequent hand washing and more.
'The data that I've seen says that you're about 33 percent protected after a two dose regimen of either of the mRNA vaccines [the Pfizer or Moderna shots] and we don't have good data from Johnson and Johnson's vaccine yet. Then if you get your booster you look like you get back up into the 75 percent protection range and for preventing disease'
Whether Delta or Omicron, U.S. is experiencing yet another surge of Covid cases during the holiday season. The nation is recording 121,188 new cases every day - a 40 percent increase over the past two weeks. Deaths are making a sharp rise as well, up 34 percent to 1,302 per week.
The number of Americans hospitalized with the virus increased over the past 14 days as well, up 21 percent to 68,079.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projects that the situation will only worsen as well.
Post a Comment