Gottlieb: New coronavirus strain “probably here in the United States”

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Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said on Sunday that a new strain of COVID-19 believed to have come from the UK was “probably here” in the US

“Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan asked Gottlieb if he thought the measures taken by the federal government to combat the new strain would have an impact, demanding negative COVID-19 tests from all air passengers arriving from the UK.

“Well, I think he’s probably here in the United States and he could be here in reasonable numbers right now,” Gottlieb said.

Gottlieb said the US needs a better way to sequence and track currently circulating coronavirus strains.

“We don’t sequence a lot of samples in this country, and a lot of sequencing that is done is done in private labs and not aggregated in public databases. This needs to be fixed,” Gottlieb said. “In the UK, it sequences about 10% of all samples. Here we do a fraction of 1%.”

In response to the new strain detected, many countries have restricted or banned travel to and from the UK Washington Gov. Jay InsleeJay Robert InsleeUS is at the forefront of 18 million cases of coronavirus, the governor of Washington requires a 14-day quarantine for travelers arriving from the UK and South Africa. Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by Mastercard – COVID-19 Help, Omnibus Discussions Reach Yarn MORE (D) last week imposed a 14-day quarantine requirement for travelers arriving in his UK state, while many other lawmakers, including the governor of New York. Andrew CuomoAndrew CuomoCuomo lends mercy to 21 people who have shown “remorse, rehabilitation,” the Republican club whose masked conga line has gone viral responds: Adults have the right to make their own decisions Britain to make sure they are quarantined MORE (D), requested stricter restrictions.

Brennan also asked Gottlieb about these thoughts about the rate at which vaccines were distributed and administered. She noted that 9 million doses of the two vaccines approved by Pfizer and Moderna were distributed and just over one million people received a vaccine.

“The pace is slower than what has been said. I think it’s probably realistic to believe that the pace will be a little slower, especially since we’re trying to get through hard-to-vaccinate populations next month,” Gottlieb said.

“I suspect there are over a million who have been vaccinated. There is a gap in reporting. But the idea that we will reach 20 million vaccines, vaccinations, by the end of the year, is probably unrealistic at the moment. “

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