There is no “clear evidence” that a new variant of coronavirus found in the United Kingdom is more transmissible or more infectious, a senior Warp Speed official said on Monday.
Moncef Slaoui, chief scientific adviser for the initiative, told reporters that the final laboratory studies of the new variant will take at least a few weeks.
“I think from a scientific point of view, today, there is no clear evidence that this virus is actually more transmissible,” Slaoui said.
Slaoui added that while there is “clear evidence” that there are more new variants in the population, it is unclear whether this is because it is more transmissible or because scientists are only looking for it now, when they were not before.
“Maybe the sowing happened in the shadows and now we see an increase,” Slaoui said.
He acknowledged that “maybe” has a higher transmissibility, but “what is clear is not more pathogenic.”
“The key point is that there is no evidence that this virus is more pathogenic, it creates more problems, more morbidity or mortality than the previous virus,” Slaoui said.
Slaoui’s comments come as officials in the United Kingdom and Europe tighten travel restrictions in response to a new strain of the virus, essentially disrupting Britain from the rest of the region.
The Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo
Andrew CuomoBirx traveled on Thanksgiving weekend after warning Americans to limit holidays to New York households, which protect fast food workers from being fired for no good reason. The agreement will include lower incentive controls, unemployment assistance Biden, Powell praises progress toward a MORE agreement (D) and the mayor of New York Bill de Blasio
Bill de BlasioVaccination is not a complete answer to the COVID-19 investigation in New York, according to which the NYPD used excessive force during George Floyd’s protests. (D) both have asked the federal government to ban travel from the UK as well.
The restrictions arise even since the European Union’s drug authority has authorized the coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech, which will allow it to be distributed to all member countries.
Health experts they are confident Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines will continue to be effective against the new strain.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that the new variant is up to 70 percent more contagious than other strains, but the estimate was based only on projections and models and has not been confirmed in a laboratory.
Slaoui said the demonstration of the increased transmissibility of the virus will take several weeks of animal studies.
Federal officials, including Anthony Fauci
Anthony FauciThe tourism industry is preparing for the disappointment of Christmas Fauci urges people to wear masks even if family members get vaccinated Fauci tells the children: “I vaccinated Santa Claus myself”, they said it was worth monitoring the situation, but they have warned against exaggerated.