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Original caption: Britain has mutated the virus, US health officials: US does not need to restrict flights or sound the alarm
[文/观察者网 陈思佳]On December 14, the British government announced that a mutated virus had appeared in England, saying that its transmission capacity was 70% greater than the original. Many European and American countries immediately took steps to restrict the movement of people in the country. UK. However, senior officials in the US Department of Health appeared to disapprove, saying that the current mutated virus “poses no threat.”
On December 20 local time, Admiral Brett Giroir, Under Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), accepted an interview on an ABC program. The senior official responsible for the detection of the new coronavirus in the United States said that the United States Department of Health will continue to pay attention to the British epidemic, but at present “there is no need to raise the alarms” and believes that there is no need to restrict British flights.
Screenshot of ABC interview logAccording to the transcript of the interview published by ABC, the presenter mentioned the situation of the virus mutation in the United Kingdom and asked Giro what kind of response the US government would take. Giro first emphasized that he believes that the United States does not It needs to follow the example of European countries to restrict British flights, because the virus has mutated more than 4,000 times, and now “there is no sign that the mutated virus is conquering England.”
Giro then boasted of the effectiveness of vaccines in the United States, saying that vaccines are sufficient to deal with mutations: “We don’t know if the virus mutates to be more lethal, but we haven’t found any type of mutation that could immunize the virus against the vaccine. I can’t say either one. This will happen, but the current vaccine seems like it should be enough to fight the existing virus. “
For these reasons, Giro said that the United States government will continue to pay attention to the situation of the British epidemic, but at present the United States “does not need to sound the alarm on this matter.”
Yet while promoting how the vaccine “kills the vaccine,” Giro did not forget to remind the American people to always pay attention to epidemic prevention measures. On the show, he urged Americans to wear masks in public places, maintain social distancing, wash their hands frequently, and limit the number and scale of gatherings as much as possible.
Ji Luo (right) is interviewed by ABCMost of the other US government officials also have similar views. According to a Bloomberg report, Moncef Slaoui, director of the US vaccine program, said that, at present, the US does not know if the mutated virus has entered the US nor if the virus can resist the current mutation. However, he believes that the threat from this mutant virus in the UK may be “overstated”.
“We cannot rule out the possibility of immunization after the virus has mutated, but at least it has not happened now,” Slavi said.
The views of Biden’s incoming team are the same as those of Trump administration officials. Health officials on Biden’s team also said they are still watching the British epidemic unfold.
Vivek Murthy, the Biden-appointed head of the HHS Health Department, currently has the same views as Giro. He believes that the vaccine is sufficient to deal with the mutated virus. “There is currently no evidence that the mutated virus is more deadly,” Murti said. “There is no reason to say that the vaccine is definitely ineffective against the mutated virus.”
Screenshot of the Bloomberg reportHowever, certain problems still arise in the distribution and inoculation of domestic vaccines in the United States. The US Consumer Business and News Channel (CNBC) stated that the US government misunderstood the delivery time of the new batch of Pfizer vaccines, and this error caused at least 14 shortage states of supply of vaccines. Under current plans, Pfizer will deliver 2 million vaccines to all parts of the United States this week, and Modena will deliver 5.9 million vaccines.
According to data updated by the New York Times on 18 local time, more than 128,000 people in the United States are currently vaccinated. Due to the long delay in state reporting, the actual number of vaccinations should be higher. However, reports predict that it may not be possible to complete vaccination for all medical personnel and seniors in nursing homes in the United States this year.
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced on the 14th that a “new mutated virus” is spreading more rapidly in parts of England. On the 19th, British Prime Minister Johnson further revealed that the transmission capacity of the mutated virus was 70% higher than the original, thus announcing that London and most of the south-east of England will implement lockdown measures.
British health officials also claimed that there is currently no evidence that the mutated virus is more deadly.
Many European countries have taken steps to restrict the movement of people in the UK. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), many European countries, including Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium, have suspended passenger flights to the UK, and cargo flights between the UK and France as well. may be affected. Canada, Argentina and other countries have also announced the suspension of flights to and from the United Kingdom.
According to statistics from Johns Hopkins University, at 10:28 a.m. on December 21 Beijing time, a total of 2,046,161 cases of new coronary pneumonia had been diagnosed in the UK and a total of 67,503 deaths; A total of 17.84 million cases of new coronary pneumonia have been diagnosed in the United States and a total of 317,667 deaths.
