- The most contagious strains of COVID-19 from the UK and South Africa are already spreading to dozens of states in the U.S.
- The new strains threaten to hamper what has been tremendous progress in the battle to reduce the rate of coronavirus infection.
- New COVID-19 infections have declined significantly in the past few weeks and have dropped 43% in just the past two weeks.
In the past 12 months, the coronavirus pandemic has caused unprecedented devastation in the United States. To date, the United States has recorded nearly 28 million coronavirus infections and more than 490,000 COVID-related deaths.
The good news, however, is that we have finally begun to see remarkable progress in the effort to defeat the coronavirus once and for all. For a start, the COVID infection rate has dropped 43% in just the past two weeks. In fact, the COVID infection rate today is almost as low as it was in October. In addition, coronavirus-related hospitalizations and deaths have dropped by more than 30% in the past two weeks.
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In addition, the COVID vaccination effort – after a slow start – is advancing faster than many health experts predicted. Although the initial goal was to administer 1 million doses of vaccine every day, the US today has an average of about 1.6 million doses of vaccine per day. Consider this: from last Thursday to Sunday, an average of 1.9 doses of vaccine were administered every day.
All in all, there is finally reason to be optimistic that the coronavirus pandemic will be a distant memory in the next year. Even so, it is important to remember that we are not yet out of danger. Despite an encouraging drop in the infection rate and a promising vaccination effort, new strains of COVID from the UK and South Africa have many health experts concerned.
As you have probably heard, the new strains of COVID from the UK and South Africa are 50% more contagious than the original strain because they are believed to cause longer periods of infection.
A recent Harvard study notes:
These data provide evidence that variant B.1.1.7 of SARS-CoV-2 can cause longer infections with similar peak viral concentration compared to SARS-CoV-2 not B.1.1.7, and this prolonged duration may contribute to B.1.1 .7 Increased transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2. The results are preliminary, as they are based on seven cases B.1.1.7. However, if confirmed by additional data, a longer isolation period than currently recommended 10 days after the onset of symptoms may be necessary to effectively stop secondary infections with this variant.
Both strains are already in the United States and some experts believe that the UK strain could become dominant as early as next month.
Even more problematic is that the South African strain is slightly more resistant to existing COVID-19 vaccines. There is also speculation that both strains are more deadly than the original.
In light of the above, Dr. Fauci warns that people must still follow existing coronavirus safety guidelines, because the new strains have the potential to cause massive outbreaks.
“The number of cases is decreasing on a very sharp downward trend now,” said Fauci. “This can go around and go in the wrong direction if we have a predominance of a virus with a better degree of transmissibility. This variant situation is slightly dominating the image. “
At this point, there is almost a kind of race to vaccinate as many Americans as possible before more contagious strains of COVID-19 become dominant. Obviously, the vaccination effort itself is hampered by two variables: a limited supply of vaccine and a general distrust of the COVID-19 vaccine itself.
Up to this point, Fauci said:
But when you have a degree of vaccine hesitation in the wider community – people who deny the vaccine are either skeptical or hesitant – we have no good mechanism for vaccinating the general public. You can do this at schools or hospitals. In other places, this is really a problem.
To achieve collective immunity, about 75 to 80% of the country will need to be vaccinated, or about 260 million people. To date, nearly 41 million Americans have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, meaning it may take a few more months to achieve collective immunity.
The good news is that Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot COVID-19 vaccine could receive an FDA Emergency Use Authorization later this month. If this happens, the supply of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in the USA will increase significantly and help speed up the vaccination effort.
A longtime Mac user and Apple enthusiast, Yoni Heisler has been writing about Apple and the technology industry in general for over 6 years. His writings were published in Edible Apple, Network World, MacLife, Macworld UK and, more recently, TUAW. When not writing and analyzing the latest events with Apple, Yoni enjoys watching Improv shows in Chicago, playing football and cultivating new addictions to TV shows, the most recent examples being The Walking Dead and Broad City.