Anthony Fauci thinks that the UK variant COVID is more widespread in the US than the well-known

The new most infectious variant of COVID that emerged from the UK is probably in more states in the US than currently known, Anthony Fauci said Newsweek.

The variant, known as B.1.1.7, first appeared in Colorado last week and has since been identified in California, Florida, New York and Georgia. B.1.1.7 is believed to be responsible for an increase in COVID cases in the UK as it is better at spreading than previous forms of the virus. It doesn’t seem to make people sicker.

Fauci, a leading immunologist and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Newsweek on Tuesday, he would be “very surprised” if the UK variant was not in “several other states” and “more widespread in the United States than we are currently detecting”.

He pointed to a prediction he made when the UK strain had not yet been reported in the United States, believing it had not been found at the time.

“I was saying that I am sure you are here, but we have not yet detected it. And I think it is quite clear that if it is in places like California, New York and Colorado … it will soon be in several other states.”

A new variant of a virus appears when it collects significant new mutations. The term “mutation” sounds alarming, but these genetic changes usually arise as part of the virus’ life cycle. Thousands mutations of COVID occurred since the beginning of the pandemic.

However, sometimes mutations can affect the way the virus acts, as with the UK variant, as well as another from South Africa that was not chosen in the USA, but Fauci believes is present.

Fauci said the UK variant “is clearly affecting the function of the virus”, allowing it to spread more quickly among people.

“We take this very seriously. Because if you have more Transmissibility, you will get more cases. When you have more cases, you have more hospitalizations. And when you get more hospitalizations, you end up with more deaths. “

Heading to the UK on Monday to announce a third party across the country confinement, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that B.1.1.7 is 50 to 70 percent more contagious than previous forms of COVID. Said the number of hospitalized COVID England was 40 percent higher than the first peak in April, and COVID deaths increased by more than 20% in the past week.

Asked whether he expects cases in the U.S. to increase as they did in the UK thanks to the variant, Fauci said that “they were already on the rise” and highlighted the fact that the country tends to beat records of deaths, hospitalizations and cases.

On Tuesday, for example, 131,195 people were in the hospital with COVID In the USA, setting a new record according to to COVID Tracking Project, which marks the 35th day that the country had more than 100 thousand hospitalizations.

Our daily update is published. States reported 1.6 million tests, 214,000 cases, a record of 131,195 patients with COVID-19 and 3,478 deaths. pic.twitter.com/wMexUooSar

– The COVID Tracking Project (@ COVID19Tracking) January 6, 2021

“We have our own problems with the increase in cases,” he said. “I don’t think the UK’s mutation [variant] was responsible for the very significant increase in cases in the United States, because the United Kingdom variant is here, but it is not the dominant strain in the United States. But even though this is not the dominant strain, we still have a very sharp case curve in our country ”.

Fauci he said people should follow the same public health measures that were recommended during the pandemic to protect themselves from the new variants. That includes wearing a mask, both indoors and outdoors, he said, keeping physical distance from people, especially when indoors, avoiding crowds and washing hands frequently.