![several blue office chairs sit empty in a carpeted room, with a paper sign saying "Vaccination centre welcome" pasted on the white wall above.](https://cdn.the-scientist.com/assets\articleNo\70641\hImg\48210\empty-chair-banner-m.webp "several blue office chairs sit empty in a carpeted room, with a paper sign saying "Vaccination centre welcome" pasted on the white wall above.")
As temperatures drop in the Northern Hemisphere and people begin to move gatherings indoors, scientists and public health experts worry that COVID-19 cases could surge for a third year in a row, Science News reports.
The concern comes as cases begin to rise in the UK and other European countries.
“In the past, what’s happened in Europe often has been a harbinger for what’s about to happen in the United States,” Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, tells NPR. “So I think the bottom line message for us in this country is: We have to be prepared for what they are beginning to see in Europe.”
This fall and winter, experts are unsure whether an entirely new variant of SARS-CoV-2 will emerge to dominate cases or whether Omicron subvariants will remain on the playing field, Science News reports. As ...
![several blue office chairs sit empty in a carpeted room, with a paper sign saying "Vaccination centre welcome" pasted on the white wall above. ](https://cdn.the-scientist.com/assets\articleNo\70641\aImg\48209\empty-chair-article-image-t.webp "several blue office chairs sit empty in a carpeted room, with a paper sign saying "Vaccination centre welcome" pasted on the white wall above. ")
