Source: Jeff J Mitchell / Getty
If you need another reminder that COVID-19 is still here, Former President Barack Obama has tested positive for the virus.
Obama announced the news via Twitter on Sunday (Mar.13), revealing he was experiencing a scratchy throat over the last few days but has been fine. Obama, who is also vaccinated and boosted, used his tweet to express the importance of getting the vaccine and the follow-up booster and revealed his wife, Former First Lady Michelle Obama has not caught the virus.
“I just tested positive for COVID,” Obama said on Twitter. “I’ve had a scratchy throat for a couple days, but am feeling fine otherwise. Michelle and I are grateful to be vaccinated and boosted, and she has tested negative.”
“It’s a reminder to get vaccinated if you haven’t already, even as cases go down,” he ended his tweet stating.
Currently, cases fueled by the highly contagious Omicron variant are steadily declining across the country. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and most scientists believe COVID-19 will become endemic and a seasonal virus like the flu. There is currently another omicron variant known as BA.2 quietly becoming the dominant strain. Like the previous variant, it isn’t causing severe cases among the vaccinated and can still be handled by current vaccines and treatments.
Dr. Bruce Farber, chief of public health and epidemiology at Northwell Health and the chief of infectious diseases at North Shore University Hospital and LIJ Medical Center, expressed there shouldn’t be any alarm about the newest variant yet. “I don’t think it means a lot because there’s pretty good cross-immunity between BA.1 and BA.2 and because the omicron wave was so recent,” Farber said. “People clearly have good immunity. It’s very good immunity for 90 days. It’s probably decent immunity for six months.”
We shall see, as of right now, the infection numbers are still trending in the right direction, and COVID-19 restrictions across the country are being loosened.
We wish Former President Barack Obama a speedy recovery.
Photo: Jeff J Mitchell / Getty
