Health News
Reuters team
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States is watching closely the most infectious variant of COVID-19 after British officials warned it could also be more deadly, two US health officials said on Saturday, warning that more data is needed.
Authorities are a little more concerned about a separate South Africa variant, although it has not yet been identified among American cases of the new coronavirus, the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Francis Collins and Dr. Anthony Fauci, main COVID of President Joe Biden. 19 medical advisor, also said.
Collins noted that the UK data is preliminary and said it is unclear why those with the UK variant face an increased risk of death, either from changes in the virus itself or other external causes, such as pressures on the health care system.
“We will consider this as something to watch closely,” he told MSNBC in an interview.
Fauci told MSNBC separately that he needed to see the UK’s raw data before fully assessing the risk of mortality and that US officials were evaluating how the two new strains could impact the vaccine’s effectiveness.
“These are serious situations that we are following closely and, if necessary, we will adapt to them,” said Fauci, adding that vaccines can be changed in the coming months, if necessary.
His comments come as Democratic President Joe Biden takes charge of the nation’s response to COVID-19, seeking to reinvigorate the fight against the highly infectious disease and recommending a war posture. In a flurry of actions since taking office on Wednesday, Biden unveiled a new US strategic plan to reduce the outbreak and signed several executive orders to increase vaccines and increase the use of masks, among other measures.
The United States is the country hardest hit by COVID-19, with 24.70 million cases and 413,775 deaths by midnight on Friday. During the past week, 3,089 Americans died of the disease on average, while 20 states reported record deaths this month.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned on Friday that the UK variant was associated with a higher level of mortality.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned last week that the UK variant, which already circulates in at least 10 US states, could become the dominant variant in the United States by March. The variant, known as B.1.1.7, is considered twice as contagious as the current one that circulates throughout the country.
“At the moment we are not alarmed by this,” said Collins, as vaccines still seemed to be effective against it. “We are a little more concerned with a South African variant.”
Fauci, the leading infectious disease specialist in the United States, echoed his concerns, calling the data on the South Africa variant a little more “nefarious”, although current vaccines still seem to protect against both variants.
Scientists said on Wednesday that the South African variant could reduce the effectiveness of current vaccines, which also increases the prospect of reinfection.
Britain has banned travelers from some African countries in an attempt to prevent the spread of this strain in the United Kingdom and is considering other restrictions.
Biden decided to impose a mandatory quarantine for air passengers arriving in the United States, although details have not yet been released. He is also requiring passengers traveling to the U.S. to have a negative COVID-19 test starting on Tuesday.
Even without an increased risk of mortality, the most contagious variants increase pressure on authorities to vaccinate the population – a campaign that many state and local officials said was slow and chaotic and that Biden promised to improve.
“When you have more cases, you will have more hospitalizations. And when you have more hospitalizations, in the end you will have more deaths, ”Fauci told reporters at the White House on Thursday.