PINELLAS County, Florida – The new, apparently more contagious variant of coronavirus, which first appeared in the UK, is spreading to the US in Colorado and California, each with a confirmed case. Although not reported in Florida, a USF scientist says the new strain is likely already here.
“So if it’s already in Colorado and California, it’s probably already here in Florida,” said Dr. Michael Teng, a virologist and associate professor of medicine at the University of South Florida.
Although the variant seems to be more transmissible, it is not more deadly.
“It’s here, but it’s not scary,” Dr. Teng said.
Health experts say our vaccines should be as effective in treating the variant as our current strain of the virus once the population is inoculated. But there is great concern.
“In fact, we are not doing much active surveillance at the moment,” said Dr. Teng.
Colorado and California officials have used genetic sequencing to discover the new strain, but this type of screening is not as widespread in the United States.
“The UK has put a lot of effort into this and has done a pretty good job of sequencing, like 7% of all their cases. The US, on the other hand, sequenced about 0.3%. ” he said.
Dr. Teng cites the latest data from the GISAID Initiative, which provides open access to global genomic data on coronavirus.
Sequencing is a powerful tool in the fight against coronavirus. It allows scientists to track and control the virus. They could identify how a type of virus led to an outbreak and found a plan to contain it by the community. It also allows them to see how the virus has changed and whether a mutation has a negative impact on the effectiveness of our current vaccines.
“We are the world leader in advanced genomic research [but] for the number of cases we have, the US is something like 43 in the world in genome sequencing, “said Dr. Teng.
Isabel Rosales
It’s like flying without radar.
“The next option could be one of those options that we don’t really want in our community, some that can cause the vaccine to lose some of its effectiveness. That would be very bad. We are fully capable of detecting it. But if we don’t look for her. We will never find her, “he said.
He says the US already has brilliant minds and technology to keep up with UK production.
“It’s not a lack of capacity in the United States. It is the lack of a very well-defined program that has a strong leadership and an impetus to do so, “he said.
Dr. Teng believes it is up to the American public to press leaders for more sequencers.
“What we want to do is try to tell the leaders to participate and do some tracking, because we need to be able to follow,” he said.
On Thursday, December 31, the FDOH confirmed a case of the new variant in Florida.
Florida has evidence of the first identified case of COVID-19 in the UK in Martin County. The individual is a 20-year-old man with no travel history. The department is working with the CDC on this investigation. We encourage everyone to continue to practice COVID-19 mitigation.
– Florida Dept. Health (@HealthyFla) January 1, 2021