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A new variant of coronavirus first identified in the UK could become the dominant strain in the US In March, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned in a report. weekly on Friday.
Known as B.1.1.7, the virus mutation has the potential to increase the country’s pandemic trajectory in the coming months due to its high transmissibility, according to the report.
As of January 13, approximately 76 cases of the coronavirus variant had been detected in 10 US states.
Although there is no known difference in clinical outcomes associated with the variants, a higher rate of transmission will lead to an increase in cases and the number of people needing clinical care, and will exacerbate the burden on an already stressed health care system. to tensions and will result in more deaths, the CDC said.
Researchers have been sequencing the genome of SARS-CoV-2 viruses, which cause COVID-19 in patients, in an attempt to monitor the evolution process of the virus. They believe that there could be many variants that contain mutations that deserve a closer look.
On Wednesday, Ohio State University scientists announced that they found a new variant with a mutation identical to the UK strain, but noted that it likely arose in a virus strain already present in the United States.
The new variant was only found in one patient from Columbus, Ohio, according to the researchers.
Although the prevalence of the strain in the population has yet to be determined, the study indicated that mutations are likely to make the virus more infectious, facilitating its transmission from person to person.
As the country is stepping up its vaccination campaign, many people are concerned about the efficacy of vaccines against the new variants. But many scientists and vaccine manufacturers are confident that current vaccines also work against newer variants.
“At this time, we have no data to believe that these mutations will have any impact on the effectiveness of the vaccines that are used now,” said Peter Mohler, scientific director of the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center.
An earlier laboratory study by Pfizer, whose vaccine has been approved for public use in many countries, showed that its vaccines could protect against a key mutation in the new highly transmissible variants of the coronavirus discovered in Britain and South Africa.
“We’ve now tested 16 different mutations, and none of them have really had a significant impact. That’s the good news,” said Phil Dormitzer, one of Pfizer’s top viral vaccine scientists.
Chinese vaccine manufacturers also conducted similar studies to evaluate the effectiveness of the vaccine. Last Saturday, Zeng Yixin, deputy director of the National Health Commission, told a press conference that the vaccines currently available for mass vaccination in China can effectively neutralize the new variant of the coronavirus first identified in the UK last month. past.
Both recent animal and human trials have shown that vaccines can induce enough antibodies to protect against new variants, according to Zeng.
