Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the new head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and former head of infectious diseases at Mass General Hospital, said on Friday that the United States is likely to be experiencing community spread. COVID-19 variant of the virus that was first discovered in South Africa.
The first two cases of the variant were diagnosed in South Carolina On thursday.
“What happened in the last week is that we have really increased surveillance and sequencing in this country,” said Walensky on the “Today” program. “And I think we were always worried if we had it here and we still haven’t detected it. And now we have evidence that these two cases in South Carolina are in fact here. “
South Carolina officials said the two individuals who contracted the variant lived in different parts of the state, did not appear to be connected and neither traveled recently. These facts are what Walensky said was “worrying” about the cases.
“The presumption at this point is that this variety has spread throughout the community,” she said.
The variant first detected in South Africa is not the only strain of the virus that has emerged in the United States in recent weeks. The first American case of the variant initially detected in Brazil was diagnosed in Minnesota earlier this week, and the CDC reported at least 315 American cases of the variant discovered in the United Kingdom.
Two cases of the UK variant were detected in Massachusetts.
Today’s presenter Savannah Guthrie asked Walensky how concerned she was about the mutant viruses with diminishing returns on the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines.
The former head of MGH said more data is needed on how different vaccines are doing against variants.
“That has always been our concern,” said Walensky. “When viruses mutate and develop strains and dominant strains, they usually do so to gain some advantage for the virus. This may be because our vaccines don’t work so well. That said, I also want to note that we never expected a vaccine as effective as Moderna and Pfizer [vaccines] with 95 percent effectiveness. And I would say that even a vaccine with 50, 60 percent effectiveness would still be a real tool in our toolbox to fight this pandemic.
“Furthermore, I know that these mRNA vaccines have the ability to use and manipulate mRNA, so it would be more potent against these strains,” he added. “And this work is already underway, so it can only make us feel that we need a reinforcing effect later on. So, all this science is going on in anticipation. “
In addition to discussing variants of the virus, Walensky evaluated the reopening of schools, saying that teachers “should get in line soon” for vaccinations and vaccinations in the coming weeks.
She also spoke about masks, saying that the CDC recommends that people wear a multilayer cloth mask, procedure mask or medical mask.
His comments came when other health experts pushed for a national plan so that everyone has access to high filtration masks, such as N95s, to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“Fifty-nine percent of Americans are wearing a mask now … certainly the N95s offer the best filtration, but in fact, they are very difficult to tolerate for long periods of time,” said the director of the CDC. “And I think the difference between a two-layer cloth mask and an N95 mask is relatively small compared to the difference of having 41 percent of the American population masked.”
“There has been a spread of this variety throughout the community.”
To see @SavannahGuthriefull interview with @CDCDirector Rochelle Walensky on the most contagious COVID-19 strain in South Africa detected in South Carolina, the implementation of vaccination and the reopening of schools. pic.twitter.com/0nMJBFItQ3
– TODAY (@TODAYshow) January 29, 2021
Associated Press information was used in this report.
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