The covid variant is easier to spread in the US ampere emergency vaccine

Photographer: Eric Lee / Bloomberg

An easier-to-spread variant of Covid-19 detected in the US for the first time last week could intensify the growth of the virus, if it has not already done so, increasing the urgency of a faster and more effective vaccination.

Only three states – Colorado, California and Florida – have have identified cases of mutant strain that has been unleashed in the UK for months. But US health officials say they do not yet know how far the variant has already traveled to the US or what it could mean for the future.

“I suspect it’s more widespread than we know,” said Michelle Barron, chief medical officer for infection prevention and control at UCHealth, a health care system with a dozen hospitals and hundreds of clinics in Colorado. “It’s a ‘if you look for it, you’ll find it.'”

The discovery of the mutant strain in the US comes as the effort to vaccinate most Americans has been hampered by inefficient coordination and a lack of federal support for states and health care systems. While more than 4.28 million Americans had been vaccinated since Saturday night, according to Bloomberg’s vaccine follower, is much less than the 20 million doses predicted by US health officials by the end of 2020.

Meanwhile, the number of infections is rising, with nearly 231,000 new cases reported in the US on Thursday before the holiday weekend, when reporting can be sporadic. Four states – including New York and California – have more than 1 million infections and more than 350,000 Americans have died.

“It’s a race and this variant has made the whole challenge more formidable,” said Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California. “Everything we saw in 2020 in terms of a provocative virus will be taken to a new level.”

Distribution of vaccines it was a challenge for a US health care system strained by a concomitant rise in infections. State and local governments are struggling with complex logistics to keep photos cool, deciding who should have early access and convincing vaccine skeptics.

To increase the amount of vaccine available, the US government is considering halving the dose of vaccine “Modern Inc.” He was shot between the ages of 18 and 55, Moncef Slaoui, chief military officer of Warp Speed, told CBS’s “Face the Nation.” He said there was evidence that half the dose provided the same level of protection for that age group.

Slaoui’s comments came in response to a question about the UK’s decision to get as many people as possible their first dose of vaccine from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, while it may delay a second dose. He said such a change would be a mistake for the US because it was not supported by trial data.

CDC studies

Meanwhile, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is currently trying to model what effect the spread could have on accelerating the spread, according to Kristen Nordlund, a spokeswoman for the agency. At this time, however, “we have no results,” Nordlund said in an email.

Prior to November, only a select number of cases in the US had been sequenced, a laboratory procedure that can determine the genetic structure of the pathogen as it travels through the population. Since then, however, the CDC has launched a national new strain detection program, said Greg Armstrong, director of the CDC’s advanced molecular detection program.

The CDC is now on the scale up to sequences 750 single samples each week, according to Armstrong, and the agency is working with laboratories across the country to map genetic material from about 1,750 virus samples a week.

The agency is also exploring whether the mutations could make existing treatments less effective, according to Henry Walke, manager of the CDC Covid-19 incident. However, there is no reason why measures such as wearing a mask and social distancing would be less effective in preventing the transmission of the new strain, he said during a call with reporters last week.

Moving viruses

Viruses have the ability to change through mutations that occur naturally as they reproduce and circulate in their hosts. Some, like the flu, evolve rapidly with thousands of distinct mutations and offspring, while others are more stable.

The new variant, scientifically known as B.1.1.7, contains a huge number of mutations, which is unusual, said Andy Pekosz, director of the Center for Emerging Viruses and Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins University. A special concern is the change of the spike protein, which binds to human cells, thus allowing the virus to enter.

Scientists suspect that these mutations facilitate the attachment of the spike protein. The new strain is thought to be 57% to 70% more transmissible than other strains of the virus.

Prevalence of the United Kingdom

In the UK, the new variant was responsible for 62% of Covid-19 infections in London in the week ending December 9, up from 28% in early November, according to Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at Norwich School of Medicine, University of East Anglia. Cases have also been identified in more than a dozen countries, including Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Singapore and South Korea.

In Colorado, state scientists are trying to do complete genetic sequencing on any samples that show signs of the UK variant, according to state scientific director Emily Travanty. The samples are marked when only two of the three genes targeted by the standard gold PCR tests used by the state are found, indicating a mutation that occurred in the third – the peak critical protein.

The missing gene is present, according to Travanty, but was not detected by the test due to the mutation, making it a signature of the variant, she said. When labs find that red flag, it indicates that more investigations are needed.

Much unknown

“There are many things we don’t know about this variant,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said last week after the first case in the United States was discovered in his home state. “But if it transmits faster, more people will be received and more people will be hospitalized.”

However, there are some positive findings related to the variant. It does not seem to be more deadly, although if more people are infected, there will be more deaths. And it is not believed to be able to surpass the two vaccines already distributed in the US, Pfizer Inc.—BioNTech SE also fired Moderna Inc. shot.

“There’s good news here,” Topol said. “It will not affect the effectiveness of the vaccine. That is why this race exists. If we overcome this and vaccinate everyone, if we do this quickly, we will have this virus under control. “

Transmission speed

Meanwhile, in the UK, the added speed of transmission considered to be related to the new strain has been visible. The number of new cases has risen dramatically in recent weeks, even as the country has instituted increasingly strong blockades, said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at University of Minnesota.

In the United States, masking and social distancing have often been more of a political issue than a public health issue, with at least one President Donald Trump adviser suggesting herd immunity, which occurs when enough people become immune to a disease. unlikely to spread, it can be achieved by simply letting the disease go.