In May 2022, the Biden administration warned of a massive winter surge in COVID-19 cases. It predicted 100 million Americans could be infected with COVID-19. But the predictions were off. According to the CDC, a winter wave of COVID-19 infections didn’t materialize.

It was the first winter season of the COVID-19 pandemic without a large increase in the number of cases nationwide.

During the first winter wave in 2020-21, before vaccines, the highest number of weekly cases peaked at 1.7 million. The highest number of deaths recorded in a week was 23,000.