The discovery of a new strain of the new coronavirus in the UK in late December quickly created panic when scientists realized it was far more contagious than the dominant strain. Even when countries around the world have taken steps to prevent it from entering its borders, some health officials, like Anthony Fauci, MD, advised against precautions such as travel bans, assuming it was likely that the variant was already in the US. Now, just a week after Fauci’s theory is proven, he is issuing another prediction about what to expect with the UK’s COVID strain – and the outlook is not so good. Read on to find out what Fauci believes will happen next with the UK variant, and for an update on where the new strain has been reported so far, check out The new COVID strain is now in these 5 states.
Read the original article at Better life.
During an interview with Newsweek published on January 6, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) said the new strain – which is officially known as variant B.1.1.7 – is probably in more than just five known states: Colorado, California, Florida, New York and Georgia. “I think it’s pretty clear that if it goes to places like California, New York and Colorado … it will soon be in several other states,” he said. And for your prediction on the South African strain, check out Dr. Fauci just issued this alert about another new COVID strain.
Not only is the variant likely in more than just five states, but Fauci also said Newsweek that he believes the UK strain is more prevalent among COVID patients than we think. He said he thinks it is “more widespread in the United States than we are currently detecting.” The reason we don’t know exactly what the strain’s prevalence is is because COVID tests determine whether a patient has the virus or not, but additional genetic sequencing needs to be done to determine which strain of the virus the person has contracted.
“In the USA, it’s a really irregular picture”, molecular epidemiologist Emma Hodcroft, PhD, told Vox about the country’s sequencing strategy. “Some states have actually invested in sequencing; some states have not. So for some states, we probably have a good idea of what’s going on. In other states, we don’t really have many sequences.” And for more regular coronavirus updates, subscribe to our daily newsletter.
Fauci said he does not believe that the current outbreaks that affect many parts of the United States are due to the highly transmissible variant of the United Kingdom. “We have our own problems with outbreak cases,” he explained. “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 steep curve of cases in our country. “And to find out where the situation is most dire right now, check out This State Now Has the Worst COVID Outbreak in the US
Just because the UK variant is not yet the dominant strain in the United States, it does not mean that the most contagious version of the virus will not create serious problems as the pandemic progresses. “We take this very seriously,” warned Fauci of the contagion of the variant. “If you have greater transmissibility, you will have more cases. When you have more cases, you have more hospitalizations. And when you have more hospitalizations, you end up with more deaths ”. And for more information on where cases are on the rise, check out how bad the COVID outbreak is in your state.