The White House Coronavirus Working Group warned in a report to states this week that a rapid increase in cases this winter could be the result of an internal variation of the virus, separate from the UK variant.
“This fall / winter increase was almost twice as high as the increase in cases than the spring and summer increases,” the working group wrote in its weekly report, which was obtained by The Hill.
“This acceleration suggests that there may be a US variant that has evolved here, in addition to the British variant that is already spreading in our communities and may be 50% more transmissible,” the report said.
“Aggressive attenuation must be used to match a more aggressive virus; without the uniform implementation of effective face masking (with two or three layers and well suited) and strict social distancing, epidemics could quickly worsen as these variants spread and become predominant, ”he continued.
The report does not say there is clear evidence of a new strain of the virus, but instead that cases are growing so fast that it could indicate a more contagious strain in the US. The United Kingdom has been hit hard by a new, more contagious strain that has been discovered there and has already been detected in several US states.
“It’s not really that we’ve discovered a different option here in the United States,” former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Friday when asked about the report.
“It’s largely a recognition of the pattern in which we fit the curve above the UK curve, and right now the trajectory of what’s happening here in the United States is very similar to what followed in the United Kingdom,” he added.
Until now, the British strain of the virus is considered more contagious, but not more deadly. It is also not believed to be resistant to vaccines, although research is ongoing.
The United States has regularly set new records in recent weeks for daily infections and deaths caused by the virus as the country struggles to control the pandemic.
Johns Hopkins University reported 4,085 coronavirus deaths in the United States on Thursday, marking the first time the country has surpassed 4,000 deaths in a single day.
The launch of the vaccines approved by Pfizer and Moderna has been marred by confusion over distribution, as officials are trying to prioritize who should receive the vaccines first and how to administer them quickly, without letting the doses get lost.
To date, about 6 million of the approximately 21 million distributed doses have been administered, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The Trump administration is encouraging states to expand the categories of people eligible for vaccine doses as a way to speed up the process and ensure that strict criteria do not slow it down.
The working group in its report this week called on states not to delay the vaccination of those over the age of 65 or people at high risk of serious complications from the virus.
“Messages should focus on proactive testing of those under 40 to prevent the silent asymptomatic spread to members of their household and a call to action for immediate testing and rapid infusion of monoclonal antibodies for those at risk of severe disease,” he said. shows in the report. “Every hospital should have outpatient infusion sites available immediately to save lives.”
When asked about the report on Friday, the CDC said there was a “strong possibility” of variants in the United States, but it would take time to determine whether there was a single variant that would fuel growth as in the United Kingdom and not there is the variant has been identified so far.
“Based on the scientific understanding of viruses, it is very likely that there are many variants evolving simultaneously around the globe,” said a CDC spokesman. “In addition, there is a strong possibility that there will be variations in the United States; however, it could [take] weeks or months to identify if there is a single variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 that fuels growth in the United States, similar to growth in the United Kingdom. “
“Researchers have been monitoring US strains since the pandemic began, including 5,700 samples collected in November and December,” the spokesman added. “So far, neither researchers nor analysts at the CDC have seen the emergence of a particular variant in the United States, as seen with the emergence of B.1.1.7 in the United Kingdom or B.1.351 in South Africa.”