Amid coronavirus variants, US isn't 'out of woods' yet, warns expert: 'There are more surprises to come'

Despite the recent dip in national virus cases, Andy Slavitt, the White House COVID-19 response team’s senior adviser, said Monday that the B.1.1.7 variant will fuel the next wave of case growth as the country pushes on with vaccinations.

"Unfortunately we can’t predict the future and we know that this virus has been nothing but full of surprises for us since its come and I think there are more surprises to come," Slavitt told MSNBC. "But I don’t think we are anywhere close [to] out of the woods. I don't expect that we are going to be seeing just smooth sailing from here," he added, in part.  Slavitt's comments followed shortly after a warning from Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, claiming that the next 14 weeks will be the worst in the pandemic. Slavitt and Osterholm centered their projections around the variant strain first detected in the U.K.,1,173 total cases now reported across 40 states in the U.S., and its impact on the U.S. in the coming weeks. The comments come after new findings from the British government, concluding it "is likely that infection" with the B.1.1.7 variant "is associated with an increased risk of hospitalization and death compared" with other viruses.